Congress took up the 2010 national government budget for the first week and held public hearings and deliberations with the various departments, offices and agencies of the national government.
The committees worked throughout the first week to consolidate the budgets from the various departments, offices and agencies of the FSM government.
A measure passed during the first week was Congressional Act 16-07, which amended Public Law 14-84 to change uses and lapse date of certain funds previously appropriated for Yap and for other purposes.
Budget deliberations spilled into the second week where finally a national budget of $35,278,975 was consolidated in C.A. 16-10 for the operations of the three branches of the FSM national government for FY 2010.
Another major measure of the second week was the amendment of the recent social security law, P.L. 15-73.
Congress passed C.A. 16-11 to delay for another year the effective dates of certain provisions of the new law, specifically those on the tax increase and the 50 percent cut on benefit payout to retirees 60 to 64 years of age.
According to the committee, the amendments are in response to the states’ reactions to the new social security law and in line with the resolution adopted by the recent Micronesian Legislative Conference.
Other measures from the second week are C.A. 16-08, which allowed a one-time reprogramming within the Department of Foreign Affairs to address urgent issues at the FSM Embassy in Tokyo; and two measures to change the uses and lapse dates of certain funds previously for the Yap and Kosrae, C.A. 16-09, and for Chuuk, C.A. 16-12.
During the third week of the second regular session, Congress passed C.A. 16-13, the highly debated measure on maternity leave.
Under the current law, maternity leave may be granted at the discretion of the management.
If signed into law, the new measure would mandate a six-week paid maternity leave for public employees of the national government.
Women from the various sectors of the working populace made a good show of public interest and offered testimonies during the public hearings.
Another measure of the third week was C.A. 16-14, which modified the intent of the fisheries observer revolving fund to also include port samplers.
In addition the measure called for an increase to the threshold amount in the fund.
It was during the third week that the series of natural disasters wreaked havoc across the Asia-Pacific region and Congress had in light of these events adopted C.A. 16-15.
The measure appropriated $80,000, to be channeled through the Micronesian Red Cross, toward international relief efforts for the devastation cause by the natural disasters that swept through the Asia-Pacific region, namely American Samoa, Indonesia, the Philippines, Samoa, Tonga and Vietnam.
The remainder of week three and four were concentrated mostly on nominations and other outstanding issues of national concern.
Congress extended the session for two more days to allow those outstanding measures due process.
