Senate may not come up with own version of draft budget

The Senate may not come up with a version of a draft government budget before the House version is adopted.

The Senate has started conducting its own budget hearings yesterday.

Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian), chair of the Senate Committee on Fiscal Affairs, said the budget hearings are meant for senators as a way to ask more questions to CNMI departments.

“Not necessarily, but we hold hearing to know more about other significant number of issues,” Hofschneider said, when asked if the Senate will draft its own version of the budget.

He said the Senate will instead wait for the House version.

The House version has been adopted by the House Committee on Ways and Means but is yet to be presented to the whole body. A House session is currently being scheduled to discuss the committee-adopted budget

Hofschneider clarified that the Senate committee he heads will start with the bigger departments.

“We have started with the big ticket items for the hearing,” he said.

Yesterday, a budget hearing for the Department of Public Safety was conducted.

Other “big ticket” agencies, such the Public School System, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, among others, are also scheduled for the budget hearing, Hofschneider said.

The House version of the budget adopted by the Ways and Means Committee and was pegged at $149.5 million.

This “budget bill” for fiscal year 2016 is slightly higher than the government’s earlier proposal of $145.8 million.

Rep. Antonio P. Sablan (Ind-Saipan), chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means pre-filed House Bill 19-86 or the “Appropriations and Budget Authority Act of 2016” last week.

A House session is expected to be convened soon by House Speaker Joseph P. Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) to approve the draft bill.

“We just passed the draft budget. It will be presented to the whole body and if approved, will be transmitted to the Senate,” Sablan earlier said.

The House Committee on Ways and Means in the last few weeks has been conducting budget deliberations for the government departments in the CNMI.

Sablan said as expected, most of the agencies wanted more than what was proposed.

During the deliberations, committee members looked at the personnel requirements of the various departments, as well as possible sources of budget allocations on the balance sheets.

Some of the biggest CNMI departments, meanwhile, are scheduled to appear before the Senate chamber for separate budget hearings.