Seventeen members rejected the Senate’s budget version with one abstention — Rep. Stanley T. Torres, R-Saipan.
Rep. Heinz Hofschneider, R-Saipan, and House Minority Leader Oscar M. Babauta, Covenant-Saipan, were absent.
During the session, Speaker Arnold I. Palacios, R-Saipan, appointed Rep. Ray N. Yumul, R-Saipan, who chairs the House Committee on Ways and Means, to head the House’s conference panel that will work with its Senate counterpart to come up with a $150.5 million budget bill acceptable to both houses.
Rep. Justo S. Quitugua, D-Saipan, Rota Independent Rep. Victor B. Hocog and Tinian Rep. Edwin Aldan of the Covenant Party were also named to the House conference committee.
The Senate has yet to announce the composition of its panel.
Saipan Independent Rep. Tina Sablan suggested that the conference committee consider cutting certain government expenditures such as board compensations, the $5,000 subsistence allowance given to lawmakers from Tinian and Rota, among other things.
Sablan and the rest of the House lawmakers are not convinced that the CNMI government should re-implement the austerity holidays that forced public offices during Fiscal Year 2007 to be closed every other Friday.
The administration, however, insists the austerity measures are necessary.
The Department of Finance projects tax collections to remain low due to the declining economy.
