“WHAT’S so hard about it?” asked retiree Remedio R. Sablan during the public comment portion of a Senate special session last week.
She noted the ongoing “power struggle” between the House and the Senate that has stalled the release of the holiday bonuses for CNMI government retirees.
She wants to know why it is taking so long to release a one-time $1,000 retiree bonus compared to the monthly pay that lawmakers receive regularly.
“It’s so hard to be sick. It’s so expensive,” she said, adding that she had incurred roughly $275,000 for chemotherapy in the U.S.
Sablan said she had spoken with Secretary of Finance David DLG Atalig earlier that day and was told that Atalig had already submitted a letter regarding the availability of funds for the retirees’ bonuses.
“Please help us and release that $1,000,” she told the senators.
The Senate last week unanimously passed its version of House Bill 22-95, which would fund and distribute bonuses for CNMI government retirees.
The Senate substitute bill is based on a floor amendment offered by Senate Floor Leader Vinnie F. Sablan.
The original House bill proposed to take a total of $2.6 million from the Marianas Visitors Authority, the Department of Finance and the governor’s discretionary funds to bankroll the $1,000 bonus for each retiree.
Senate Floor Leader Sablan noted that MVA and the Department of Finance had said that taking their funds “would really impact their operations.”
Legislative Bureau fiscal analyst Dave Demapan, Secretary of Finance Atalig and his team, together with the Senate legal counsel, reviewed the government budget and identified alternative funding sources for the retirees’ bonuses.
The Senate floor leader said these were “personnel lapses” and they are enough to cover the cost of these bonuses.
Personnel lapses are funds that may have been “over appropriated” or are not being used, he added.
H.B. 22-95, SS1 is now with the House.
It was on Dec. 14, 2021 when the governor asked the Senate and the House to adopt a joint resolution that would allow the Department of Finance to provide $500 bonuses to CNMI retirees.
The following day, the Senate adopted Senate Joint Resolution 22-5 to authorize the reprogramming of funds for the retirees’ bonuses.
The House, however, did not act on the joint resolution. Instead it passed a bill on Jan. 12, 2022 that would fund the bonuses by reappropriating the funds that the governor had line-item vetoed.
Since then, the House and the Senate had been deadlocked over the funding source of the bonuses, which were supposed to have been released before the Christmas holidays last year.
Remedio R. Sablan addresses the Senate during its special session on Monday, April 18, 2022.
