The LB has 33 full-time employee positions, seven of which are vacant.
Committee Chairman Ramon S. Basa, Covenant-Saipan, said they looked at the constitutionality of giving the LB director a salary of $1.
Whatever may have transpired between the LB director and the speaker is beside the point, he said.
Basa said they must be good lawmakers and follow the Constitution.
He believes that the $1 salary for the LB director violates the Constitution.
Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, wants to replace the current LB director, Glenna SP. Reyes, but the Senate said her contract doesn’t expire until Sept. 30, 2010.
In an interview, the former governor said the House leadership planned not to provide a budget to the LB, and to transfer its staffers to the offices of the lawmakers.
The bureau’s $1.3 million budget for FY 2010 will also be transferred to each member of the House and Senate.
“So, each one of us will have to hire our own staff. No more LB staff,” Tenorio said.
Rep. Eliceo D. Cabrera. R-Saipan, who worked for the LB, said it cannot be dissolved legislatively because the bureau was created by the Constitution.
It is the Constitution that also mandated that the LB will be headed by a director appointed by the leadership of both houses.
“In order for us to be assisted by the LB the director has to hire professionals to help us with our day to day functions,” said Cabrera, who served as Tenorio’s special assistant for budget and management when the speaker was still the governor.
“The LB has to be maintained,” Cabrera said.
House Floor Leader George N. Camacho, Ind.-Saipan, said the LB must be retained “in whatever form.”
“It is very hard for me to speak against the LB because I’ve been an employee of the bureau for a long time and I understand its functions and how important it is to the members of the Legislature,” he said.
Among the LB’s personnel are the legislative assistants, the legal counsels and the clerks.
LB Director Glenna SP Reyes said the bureau was established by the Constitution to centralize the professional and administrative services of the Legislature.
It is tasked to provide legal, clerical and administrative services to both chambers, and serves as the “institutional backbone” of the Legislature, she added.
The current staff of the LB, she said, is comprised of competent individuals that have served lawmakers for many years.
“They possess the skills, experience, and the institutional knowledge that are the most valuable assets to members, especially to new members,” she added.
According to Reyes, the current employees possess legislative work experience ranging from five to 26 years.
“These employees contribute significantly to the work of legislative members offering institutional information and guidance,” she added.
