“AT the end of the day, I will continue to work hard to safeguard our hardworking retirees,” Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said on Friday.
“As mentioned before, upon previous consultation with the NMI Settlement Fund Trustee, Joyce Tang, and the Office of the Attorney General, we decided that the best course of action to make this retiree bonus possible was for the Legislature to pass the joint resolution that would create this business unit. Then, we can reprogram the funds,” he said in a statement.
The Senate introduced and adopted a joint resolution in mid-December to allow Gov.Torres to reprogram $1.3 million in funding and pay each retiree a $500 bonus.
The House, in turn, did not act on the joint resolution and, instead, demanded more information from the administration about the funding source.
Then, in mid-January, the House unanimously passed House Bill 22-91 that would fund the $1.3 million needed for CNMI government retirees’ bonuses by reappropriating funds that the governor line-item vetoed when he signed the fiscal year 2022 budget measure into law.
The Senate passed its own version of this House bill, amending it to double the bonuses, proposing to increase it to $1,000 per retiree.
The amendments would also give the governor 100% reprogramming authority over the appropriated funds for the executive branch.
But the House rejected the Senate version of H.B. 22-91, and House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez appointed Rep. Donald Manglona, Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan T. Attao and Rep. Corina L. Magofna as the House conferees to the bicameral committee that will try to draft a version acceptable to both chambers.
Senate minority bloc members Paul A. Manglona and Edith Deleon Guerrero on Thursday pre-filed Senate Resolution 22-18 “respectfully requesting” Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider to appoint the Senate conferees to the conference committee.
S.R. 22-18 also states that the governor does not need 100% reprogramming authority given that “Secretary of Finance David DLG Atalig testified before the House Committee on Ways and Means confirming that the 25% reprogramming authority in the Planning and Budgeting Act, Section 7402 of the Commonwealth Code, is sufficient to cover the full amount of $2.626 million required to provide each retiree with a $1,000 bonus.”
“First off,” the governor said, “I would like to acknowledge the original Joint Resolution for the retiree bonuses, which had the intention of creating a business unit within the current budget, which would allocate $1.3 million from the Executive Branch to our retirees. The Senate made the amendment to include the 100% reprogramming authority to ensure that issues like this regarding retiree bonuses will not happen again in the future.”
The governor added, “Thank you to members of the Legislature who are working to make this possible for our retirees. Specifically, I want to once again thank the Senate and the House minority, as they work expeditiously to provide this additional assistance to our retirees. I request the Legislature’s collaboration, so that a solution can be found to help our retirees.”
