THE House of Representatives may no longer act on a resolution expanding Gov. Juan N. Babauta’s authority to reprogram funds beyond the 25-percent cumulative reprogramming authority prescribed by law.
Stanley T. Torres, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said majority of House members feel that there “is no urgency” to act on House Joint Resolution 13-5 introduced by House Floor Leader Jesus T. Attao, R-Saipan.
“The governor’s current reprogramming authority, we think, is still sufficient to accommodate the need to adjust funding levels for government agencies,” said Torres, R-Saipan.
In the early part of March, the House adopted H.J.R. 13-5 after the presiding officers of the Legislature were advised by Babauta on the revised and reduced revenue estimate for FY 2002 amounting to $193.366 million.
Attao stated in the resolution that in the “absence of a comprehensive appropriation act for fiscal year 2002,” and due to the “severely reduced revenue projection,” it is necessary to grant the governor the “broadest fiscal authority to meet the most critical demands on public revenues.”
On March 22, the Senate amended the resolution stating that the reprogramming authority “shall not be used to reprogram funds (for) travel or official representation accounts.”
On April 10, the House approved the Senate’s amendment. On April 17, however, the House recalled its action on the measure and returned it to the Ways and Means Committee.
At least two lawmakers told Variety last month that the House recalled action on the measure due to “some typographical errors that need to be corrected.”
Asked if the House’s decision to shelve the resolution was a retaliation to the executive branch’s recent move to cut each lawmaker’s budget allocation by 16.3 percent, Torres said “it’s not the main factor in our decision, but it could be related to that.”
He said that even without expanding the governor’s authority to reprogram funds, Babauta can still exercise such authority beyond the limit.
