“There’s consensus — it’s moving along,” said Reyes, R-Saipan.
The House of Representatives wants the austerity Fridays proposed by the Senate removed from the budget bill, and Reyes said the senators will agree “if it’s not going to result in the termination” of government employees.
“But right now,” Reyes said, “there seems to be no other” alternative to the re-imposition of austerity Fridays which, according to the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee, will help save government jobs.
The conference committee has been meeting almost everyday since last week.
“I’m very encouraged,” Reyes said. “I’m very confident that there will be a budget.”
The conferees, he added, have been working with Finance Secretary Eloy Inos.
“The administration’s concerns are also being taken into consideration and Eloy has been a tremendous help to the conferees,” the Senate president said.
The House and Senate conferees are House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Victor B. Hocog, Ind.-Rota, Reps. Edwin P. Aldan, Covenant-Tinian, Justo S. Quitugua, D-Saipan, Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee Chairwoman Maria Frica T. Pangelinan, D-Saipan, Sens. Paul A. Manglona, R-Rota, and Joseph M. Mendiola, Covenant-Tinian.
FY 2009 started on Oct. 1.
After the House passed the budget bill, the Senate approved its own version which included several cost-cutting measures. But the House rejected the Senate bill and the conference committee is now trying to draft a budget acceptable to both houses.
The CNMI Constitution allows the government to continue operating under the spending ceilings set by the last enacted budget law if no new budget is passed.
Since 1998, only three budgets have been enacted by the government, which continues to operate under the $163.5 million budget passed two years ago.
