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Sablan, Salas resign from House committee
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Posted on Sep 04 2008
Rep. Tina Sablan on Wednesday resigned from the House committee that recommended the shelving of an immigration bill she had co-authored with several other lawmakers.
Sablan’s resignation comes on the heels of a similar action by Rep. Edward Salas, who resigned from the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations, as well as the House leadership, last week.
Sablan and Salas are both sponsors of the House-rejected bill that proposed to grant improved immigration status for long-time guest workers.
In a letter to the Committee chair Rosemond Santos, Sablan decried not being given an opportunity to review the committee report, which urged the House of Representatives to shelve her bill, and which the House adopted on Aug. 22, 2008.
Sablan also criticized the committee for the two-page report, suggesting it was too simple to do justice to the legislation and the comments received about it.
“I am most disturbed… that a two-page committee report, which finds a piece of legislation reasonable, potentially beneficial, controversial, and moot, without fully explaining why, and which glosses over numerous testimonies received over three public hearings and a six-week comment period, can be deemed acceptable and sufficient by a majority of the committee members and a majority of the House,” she said.
“I find these and other JGO committee practices to be improper and irreconcilable with my own views of what responsible lawmaking should entail. I therefore feel that my resignation as a member of the committee is in order,” she added.
Reached by telephone yesterday afternoon, Santos said she will defer comment until she has read Sablan’s letter.
