The bills also give the governor state of emergency authority under the Disaster Relief Act and the CNMI Emergency Health Power Act during the shutdown period which the CNMI government experienced for more than a week last fall due to the lawmakers’ failure to pass a budget bill before Oct. 1, 2010.
Benavente’s bill lists down the essential government services whose personnel will continue to report for work and receive their salary in case no new budget is enacted into law on or before Oct. 1, 2011.
Taimanao’s bill does the same but lists down specific departments and positions that will continue to report for work in case of a government shutdown.
Basa told reporters after the meeting that his committee is not necessarily expecting another shutdown.
“Nobody wants a shutdown,” he said, adding that they just wanted to review all pending bills.
During the meeting, he said, the committee members looked for ways to integrate the two bills with the governor’s executive order during last year’s partial shutdown.
His committee, Basa added, may come up with a substitute bill.
But noting the “very low” budget projection, he said it is more appropriate to list down and specify all essential services.
Both bills will exempt a lot of “critical service” employees from the shutdown, he added.
“With a very small budget that we have now, I don’t think that can help the current situation,” Basa said.
He said that as soon as the two bills are consolidated by the committee, the House will act on the substitute measure.
