Bicameral meeting eyed to seal pact on budget

The House and the Senate are set to go into bicameral conference on Thursday to begin hammering out an agreement on the much-delayed budget that will oil operations of the government for the next 10 months.

The joint meeting will be held in the Legislature building on Saipan, ditching a request from the Senate to conduct the proceeding on Rota.

Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Antonio M. Camacho declined to comment when asked what the lower house intends to lay down on the negotiating table when they meet with their Senate counterparts.

But House Floor Leader Oscar M. Babauta expressed optimism of reaching a deal before the end of the year so that the Legislature can bring the budget over to Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio for his approval.

This is the second time in less than a year that both houses have locked horns on the spending measure submitted by the administration. The governor vetoed the FY 2000 budget drawn up by the bicameral body.

Three House representatives — Mr. Camacho, Mr. Babauta and Rep. Malua T. Peter — will sit down with Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Sen. Edward U. Maratita from Rota, Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes from Saipan and Sen. Joaquin G. Adriano from Tinian.

The move came after the House rejected amendments made by the Senate on the FY 2001 budget that showed substantial changes to the proposal it crafted last August.

Estimated spending level for the current fiscal year has reached to $221.66 million last week, but the upper house took away $10 million from the Executive Branch to fund programs and projects endorsed by the senators.

Among the items expected to be discussed in the closed-door meetings are the drastic cuts on the share of the Department of Public Safety and Department of Public Health, the elimination of $700,000 from a proposed lobbying campaign in Washington D.C., and the earmarking of $2 million to pay the retroactive salary hike of government employees.

Mr. Maratita earlier has expressed unwillingness to compromise on the appropriation for PL 7-31’s across-the-board pay increase, while Mr. Camacho cast doubt whether the money would be used for that purpose.

The lower house has also begun discussion the possibility of setting aside funds to compensate government employees who are considered under frozen steps as provided in PL 10-76.

Differences on how to distribute cash resources of the government have come to mark the budget process in the Legislature in the past few years, mainly due to the decline in revenues and jostling for bigger share that have made it difficult to reach a compromise.

Mr. Tenorio previously has said he would not step into the fray between the Senate and the House on the budget, but he is likely to reject some appropriation items once the spending measure clears both chambers.