House rejects changes to Omnibus bill

The proposed Omnibus Labor and Business Reform Act heads into another round of review after the House of Representatives yesterday rejected amendments made by the Senate.

Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, who sponsored the proposal under HB 12-39, said he will call immediately a bicameral conference meeting to iron out differences with the upper house.

This is the second time in less than two months that the two chambers clash due to disagreement over legislation. The first was on the FY 2000 budget proposal that the governor later disapproved.

House Floor Leader Oscar M. Babauta said there are several provisions they found in the Senate version that are not “flexible enough” and need to be changed, including the proposal to increase the cap on the number of garment workers.

Senators had approved additional 2,000 foreign workers on top of the 15,727 cap put in place by the government last year on the sector. These will be allotted for the potential establishment of garment industry on Rota and Tinian.

“We are concerned on the increase of overall garment workers in the CNMI,” Mr. Babauta told reporters before the House held its special session.

He added that allowing transfer of guest workers, particularly factory workers to other service sectors like entertainment clubs, as proposed by the Senate will have to be re-visited.

Likewise, the House leadership disapproved reinstatement of the hiring ban imposed under Public Law 11-6 against guest workers, noting that this is one of the restrictions they are trying to abolish.

Businessmen on the islands should be given more flexibility in hiring people to staff their companies, according to Mr. Babauta. “They should be given the discretion as to whom, when and where to choose their workers,” he added.

One of key economic measures by the House under Mr. Fitial’s leadership, the measure aims to help businesses cope with declining revenues by easing government restrictions imposed on the private sector, such as the hiring ban and cap on the number of nonresident workers.

The proposal was cleared by the Senate late last month after amending several provisions to suit concerns of the members and the executive branch.

Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes, chair of the Resources, Economic, Development and Programs Committee, maintained their version is a result of a compromise hammered out with all the parties.

Meanwhile, yesterday’s session by the lower house passed three other House bills amended by the Senate, including the proposal to transfer administration of the Development Disabilities Council to the Office of the Governor.

The State Funeral Amendment Act expanding coverage of people who can be given such honors when they die was also approved, as was the Fair Fishing Act of 2000.

The three legislation are now up for consideration by the governor. Three resolutions were also adopted, two of which honored two people — one is local student Ryan Dela Cruz Camacho and the other is Jo-Anna Nakata, state executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency in Hawaii.