By Emmanuel T. Erediano
emmanuel@mvariety.com
Variety News Staff
NO emergency session, as urgently requested by Gov. David M. Apatang, will be held in the House of Representatives today, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, to pass his proposed fiscal year 2026 budget revision. Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita warned on Sunday that the CNMI government “heads closer to the cliff with no insurance coverage for 7,000 people.”
In a WhatsApp interview, Norita called the situation “a crisis that is completely avoidable.” Although the government has until Dec. 31, 2025, to renew group health and life insurance coverage for retirees and active employees, she said delays in passing the expenditure plan “reflect very poor planning for our people. The longer we delay, the greater the disruption to healthcare services.”
In his Dec. 9, 2025, letter to House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez and Senate President Kark King-Nabors, the governor requested an emergency session “no later than Dec. 15, 2025” to act on his revised FY 2026 budget, which appropriates $144.3 million for government operations and personnel. He warned that further delays could impair the administration’s ability to manage disruptions caused by a late open-enrollment period for active employees, or worse, force the termination of the group health and life insurance plan with Aetna International Inc.
During Thursday’s bicameral budget committee meeting, Norita reiterated the governor’s urgency. “We are here to push the governor’s revised budget proposal forward,” she told lawmakers. “Thousands of active employees and retirees are at stake. Losing their health insurance would create a healthcare crisis. Families would face financial ruin due to high deductibles, and Commonwealth Healthcare Corp’s services may be disrupted because of funding shortfalls.”
Norita noted that the governor’s Oct. 14, 2025, revised budget submission accounts for a scenario that is “fully actionable” now that the administration has executed a $29 million loan agreement with the Marianas Public Land Trust on Dec. 5, 2025. In this scenario, all current members of the group health and life insurance plan will maintain coverage, current enrollees will keep their plans active into the new year, and new enrollees will have retroactive coverage from Jan. 1 once open enrollment concludes.
“That is the best-case scenario,” she said.
Norita described an alternative as a “nuclear bomb” scenario, with “catastrophic” effects: higher premiums for active employees, increased employee contributions, and unaffordable coverage for many. “People will drop out of the insurance program,” she told lawmakers.
“I reiterate that we must pass the governor’s proposed budget revision,” she said. Norita described the $2.8 million allocation for GHLI in House Bill 24-75, currently with the Senate, as “piecemeal” funding that Finance will have to stretch over 12 months. She said this would reduce the government’s share, increase employee contributions, and make premiums for new enrollees unaffordable.
Special Assistant for Management and Budget Vicky Villagomez added that with fewer than 10 days remaining before the second quarter of the fiscal year, “the consequences will be severe.” She said the urgency is necessary, and the public deserves transparency.
“We call upon this Legislature to act swiftly, prioritize the budget revision, and ensure that coverage and government operations are not put at risk before the second quarter arrives. The truth is clear: time is short and the stakes are high. Let us not be remembered for inaction but for leadership. Let us act now,” Villagomez said.
In a separate interview, House Ways and Means Chairman John Paul Sablan said the goal of the bicameral panel — his committee and the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee — is to finalize a “product” before the end of the week. The panel will convene today, Dec. 15, 2025, to draft a revised budget bill.
Sablan said Finance and the Office of Management and Budget have been asked to provide additional documents regarding the single audit and government collections for the most recent fiscal quarters. “We received some information, but not everything,” he said. “We must ensure due diligence in analyzing the numbers so the Legislature can base its decisions on accurate information.”
Senate President Karl King-Nabors said the Senate anticipates that the revised budget will pass the Legislature before the deadline to renew insurance coverage. The Senate’s target, he said, is before the Christmas break.
The Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee will meet with its House counterpart on Friday to finalize the numbers in the revised budget bill. He stressed that none of them in the Legislature intends to let retirees and active government employees lose their insurance coverage.
“We will definitely pass the budget before the deadline,” he said.
Emmanuel “Arnold” Erediano has a bachelor of science degree in Journalism. He started his career as police beat reporter. Loves to cook. Eats death threats for breakfast.
