Rep. Tina Sablan, Ind.-Saipan and one of three principal sponsors of House Bill 16-86 or the Resident Foreign National Act of 2008, tendered her resignation from the JGO Committee yesterday.
She told the chairwoman, Rep. Rosemond Santos, R-Saipan, that she is “most disturbed” that committee decisions can be made outside of properly assembled committee meetings and that duly appointed members can be excluded from reviewing and commenting on committee report prior to its presentation to the House.
The House “filed” — or shelved — H.B. 16-86 even as Sablan and the rest of the sponsors had not been accorded the opportunity to review and sign the committee report.
Rep. Edward T. Salas, R-Saipan, also resigned from the House leadership and the JGO Committee over the same issue.
Sablan said the fact that they are the sponsors of the bill in question is immaterial — of greater concern is the manner in which the committee acts on measures referred to it.
“The fact that both Rep. Salas and I had been authors of the bill in question — H.B. 16-86 — is beside the point. I am most disturbed, instead, by several key issues: That committee decisions can be made, and committee action taken, outside of properly assembled committee meetings…that duly appointed committee members can be excluded from reviewing and commenting on a committee report if their views are expected to be in conflict with the views of the chair,” Sablan told Santos.
“I find these and other JGO committee practices to be improper and irreconcilable with my own views and of what responsible lawmaking should entail. I therefore feel that my resignation as a member of the committee is in order,” she added.
Santos could not be immediately reached for comment.
