SENATE minority bloc members Paul A. Manglona and Edith Deleon Guerrero on Thursday prefiled Senate Resolution 22-18 “respectfully requesting” Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider to appoint the Senate conferees to the conference committee that will draft a version of House Bill 22-91 that is acceptable to both chambers.
Authored by Rep. Donald Manglona, H.B. 22-91 would fund the $1.3 million bonus for CNMI government retirees.
The House introduced the bill in January instead of acting on a Senate resolution adopted in mid-December to authorize a holiday bonus for the retirees.
The Senate, in turn, passed its own version of H.B. 22-91 to increase the bonuses for government retirees from $500 to $1,000 each and grant the governor 100% reprogramming authority over the executive branch budget so he could fund the bonuses.
But the House rejected the bill as amended by the Senate. Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez then appointed Rep. Manglona, Vice Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao and Rep. Corina Magofna as the House conferees.
Senator Manglona said the Senate president should appoint Senate conferees and support a proposed version that does not provide the governor 100% reprogramming authority.
According to the Senate resolution, “To date, the Senate president has not appointed the Senate conferees to begin the dialogue and reach an amicable compromise so that our CNMI retirees can be given their well-deserved $1,000 bonus.”
The resolution further stated that the governor “does not require the 100% reprogramming authority after the secretary of Finance testified before the House Standing Committee on Ways and Means and confirmed that the 25% reprogramming authority, as provided in the Planning and Budgeting Act, Title 1, Section 7402 of the Commonwealth Code, is sufficient to cover the full amount of $2,626,000 that is required for the $1,000 retiree bonus.”
