Reyes, R-Saipan, explained that the $4,250 monthly allowance for Rota and Tinian senators and the $2,750 monthly allowance for Saipan senators are taken from the $85,000 that the fiscal year 2011 budget allocated to each of them.
Variety learned that “subsistence allowance” is just a term used to describe how each lawmaker can use a portion of his discretionary fund.
The subsistence allowance, Reyes said, has always been authorized by the rules of each house of the Legislature and does not necessarily mean that some money was added to each lawmaker’s account.
Section 2 of Senate Rule 12 provides that “a member from Rota or Tinian who is an officer of the Senate or a chair or vice chair of a committee may specify and use a portion of the funds under the member’s individual office account to defray the costs of food, lodging, and other incidental expenses incurred by reason of attending to legislative business in the commonwealth but outside the member’s senatorial district.”
The rule also states that the costs of transportation “shall be charged to the member’s office account through regular travel procedures.”
Reyes said allowing members of the Saipan delegation to use a portion of their funds as subsistence allowance “does not add one iota to their account in the approved budget.”
According to Reyes, if there is a proposal to scrap or reduce the amount for this allowance, “I have no problem with that. Every member’s subsistence allowance should be scrapped or reduced and I will support it.”
He added, “I think this issue is being sensationalized or blown out of context.”
