Rep. Ray N. Yumul, R-Saipan and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said House Bill 16-223, the austerity holiday bill sponsored by Rep. Victor B. Hocog, Ind.-Rota, was already discussed in the committee level but there was no consensus to formally introduce it on the floor.
“At this point, we’re not going to act on any austerity bill. We want to know first how they plan on tackling the particular issue of using stimulus money to avoid furloughs,” said Yumul in an interview yesterday.
The Fitial administration announced last week that furloughs could be avoided if the CNMI is allowed to use about $8 million in federal stimulus grants.
Yumul said they want to get more information regarding its plan to use these funds.
The government currently employs more than 4,000.
In a separate interview, Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said lawmakers should act on the austerity measures.
“We believe that one of the main purposes or functions of federal stimulus funding is to maintain and create jobs, especially in hard hit, disadvantaged small communities like the CNMI or the other insular areas,” he said in an e-mail.
“But we do not believe it would be prudent to defer austerity measures because we need a margin of safety in case of certain contingencies or unforeseen developments down the road,” he added.
