3 House committee grill Babauta

Washington Rep. Juan Babauta faced three House committees yesterday in the first ever oversight hearing conducted by the Legislature into the Office of the CNMI Resident Representative to the United States.

The oversight hearing stemmed from a financial report prepared by the House Ways and Means Committee which claimed that Mr. Babauta overspent more than $250,000 from his Fiscal 1999 allotment.

The hearing focused on the office’s fund use as well as assessment on federal takeover and annual appropriations legislation pending before the U.S. Congress.

Legislators also took turns in grilling Mr. Babauta due to his office’s apparent failure to stop the approval of a legislation in the U.S. Senate which was aimed at extending federal immigration and minimum wage control into the CNMI.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Antonio M. Camacho said efforts are now underway to finally stop the alleged overspending by the Washington Representative’s Office.

In an interview after the hearing, Mr. Camacho said Mr. Babauta had given his staff promotion on several occasions which run in contrast to the governor’s call for a freeze in wage adjustment in light of depleting public revenues.

“We will try to recover whatever it is he has overspent. We will be writing the governor and the Office of Management and Budget for consolidated efforts to make sure government money is spent accordingly,” he said.

House records reveal that the Washington Representative’s Office has been given $1.381 million in total budget during the last fiscal year but has actually spent $1.632 million during the same period.

At the same time, House Federal and Foreign Relations Committee Chair Norman S. Palacios questioned Mr. Babauta’s apparent failure to block moves in the U.S. Congress to extend federal immigration and minimum wage laws into the CNMI.

Mr. Palacios argued that the Washington representative should have been in the U.S. during the time the Senate voted in favor of the federal takeover legislation sponsored by Sen. Frank Murkowski, chair of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

However, Mr. Babauta said his presence during the deliberations on the legislation by the U.S. Senate would not yield any positive result for the CNMI at all since he does not have voting authority.

Mr. Babauta also defended the importance of his office in making the Commonwealth’s voice heard on issues directly or indirectly affecting the Northern Marianas.