Standoff over CHC bills a result of ‘oversight, misunderstanding’

A seeming standoff between the House and Senate over the supposed simultaneous passage of both an $11.58 million line of credit bill for the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and a bill changing the CHC board of trustees from being just “advisory” to a “governing” one might just be an “oversight” or “misunderstanding” and not because both parties are “playing politics,” lawmakers said Friday.

House and Senate members said neither chamber is deliberately stalling the passage of both bills.

The House passed Thursday morning a compromise version of HB 17-278 or the line of credit bill, not Senate Bill 17-80, which changes the CHC board to a governing one.

The conferees from the House and Senate agreed to “simultaneously” pass the two bills.

Upon learning of the House’s inaction on S.B. 17-80, the Senate decided to cancel its session “until further notice” or until the House also passes S.B. 17-80.

“It’s just oversight, it’s not intentional,” conference committee co-chair Rep. Sylvester Iguel (Cov-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune Friday.

Iguel didn’t work for a few days because he was not feeling well so his Committee on Health was unable to report out SB 17-80 for action by the full House.

“It was an unintended result. I immediately pre-filed the report when I got back to work on Thursday,” he added.

Rep. Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan) also said it might have been just a misunderstanding and not intentional. “We are not playing politics. It was just miscommunication. Besides, we were focused on giving CHC access to money for their continued operations that we forgot about the other bill that the conference committee agreed to pass,” Basa said.

Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) called for the cancellation of its Thursday afternoon session “until further notice” at the request of the Senate conferees led by co-chair Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan).

Torres and Manglona cited Section C of the Conference Committee Report, which states that “Sections 3-8 of HB 17-78, HD2, SS1 were deleted from the bill because the conferees agreed that the provisions changing the advisory board of trustees of the healthcare corp. to a governing board of trustees shall be put in a standalone bill and passed simultaneously with this bill by both houses at the next session of each respective house.”

“The Senate will schedule its next session upon such time that the House of Representatives passes and transmits to the Senate the bill that it agreed to pass during the Conference Committee regarding HB 17-278,” Manglona said in a memo to senators about the session cancellation.

House members interviewed Friday said that a House session will be held this week.

Friday afternoon, the Senate president called for a session on Rota tomorrow, May 1, at 11am. The agenda reflects HB 17-278, but not SB 17-80 because it has yet to pass the House.

The compromise version of HB 17-278, originally introduced by Basa, allows MPLT to provide CHC with up to $11.58 million line of credit to prevent a shutdown. The conferees agreed to secure future interest from MPLT to assist CHC.