The 57-page House Bill 16-169, or the Appropriations and Budget Authority Act of 2009, does not contain any appropriation for the Fitial administration’s request for $400,000 to finance the lawsuit against the federalization law.
Press Secretary Charles Reyes Jr. refused to say whether Gov. Benigno R. Fitial will veto the House budget version.
The $156.7 million budget bill is now with the Senate.
An undetermined number of Department of Homeland Security personnel from the U.S. will be assigned to the CNMI sometime next year as part of the transition period under the federalization law.
Local personnel will have to meet federal requirements if they want to continue working for Immigration.
The CNMI has 78 Immigration personnel and most of them are based on Saipan.
“Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, all immigration employees of the Attorney General’s Office, who are not employed by the federal government when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security assumes immigration control in the commonwealth in June 2009, shall be laterally transferred to other government offices pursuant to the procedure set forth in the commonwealth Civil Service Rules and Regulations,” according to a provision of H.B. 16-169.
“All corresponding [full-time employees] and funding for such FTEs shall be transferred to the receiving government office accordingly,” it added.
The House passed the budget measure by a vote of 15-4 during a marathon session on Thursday.
The bill also proposes a hiring ban on new employees and salary increases.
