The House of Representatives currently has 20 members while the Senate has nine.
Benavente, R-Saipan, who also supports a part-time Legislature, said he expects that the result of last year’s census will show a smaller population and this will finally allow the CNMI government to reduce the size of the Legislature.
The CNMI Supreme Court decided four years ago to increase the number of House seats from 18 to 20 citing the results of the 2000 census.
When that census was conducted, Benavente said, there were still a lot of people living in the CNMI.
“Now this [recent] census report will show a smaller population which will then allow the Legislature to enact a law that will reduce the size of the House,” he said.
He wishes to see an immediate reduction in the number of House seats as soon as the new census report comes out.
Benavente said there’s actually nothing wrong about having several representatives serving each precinct.
But funding for critical public services is dwindling and the government should start to reduce its size, he added.
