THE House Ways & Means Committee will subpoena Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig on Monday, Aug. 22, Rep. Donald Manglona said.
As chairman of the committee, Manglona said they want to ask Atalig “where we are at with [the American Rescue Plan Act funds] right now, how much has been expended and how much do we have left for the next fiscal year.”
Atalig usually shows up for Ways & Means committee meetings if his presence was requested. The last time he met with the committee was during the budget hearing for Finance in June.
Manglona said during one of those meetings the Finance secretary mentioned he would be providing the committee a list of the operation funds for agencies in the revised budget submission.
But when Gov. Ralph DLG Torres submitted his revised fiscal year 2023 budget on July 1, the agencies’ lack of budget for operations “was not addressed,” Manglona said.
He said they will ask the Finance secretary how much of the ARPA funds the agencies could use in the following fiscal year.
That way, he added, Finance could “assist” the committee in identifying additional funds for agencies that need more because they were not allocated federal assistance.
Manglona said the committee has resorted to a subpoena because they have yet to receive the documents that the Finance secretary promised to provide.
Manglona said they also want to find out where the Torres administration got the $5 million it provided for the Medicaid matching funds.
He said new programs are being established using ARPA funds, but these were never mentioned in the governor’s initial ARPA fund allocations.
Donald Manglona
