THE House Special Committee on Federal Assistance and Disaster-Related Funding will convene next week to begin its investigation of the prior administration’s expenditures of federal funds.
The House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul, who also chairs the special committee, informed acting Speaker Joel Camacho on Thursday that they will hold an organizational meeting at 10 a.m., Tuesday in the House chamber.
Yumul said they will review the House’s legal authority to conduct legislative research and investigation, and come up with rules and parameters of the investigation.
Ahead of the meeting, House legal counsel John Bradley provided the committee with relevant CNMI constitutional provisions and statutes.
He cited the Constitution’s Article II, Section 14, which states: “Each house may compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of books and papers before the House or its committees.”
In addition, Title 1, Section 1302 (a) and (b) provide that “service of a subpoena requiring the attendance of a person at a hearing of an investigating committee shall be made at least five days prior to the date of the hearing”; and “any person who is served with a subpoena to attend a hearing of an investigating committee also shall be served with a general statement of the subject matter of the committee’s investigation.”
The vice chairman of the special committee is House Floor Leader Edwin Propst and its other members are Vice Speaker Joel Camacho, Reps. Vincent Aldan, Blas Jonathan Attao, Diego Vincent F. Camacho, Vicente Camacho, Marissa Flores and John Paul Sablan.
Ralph Yumul
