House of Delegates Chairman of Committee of Ways and Means Seciliil Elbedechel in an interview said that the Senate is blaming them for killing the measure with three days left before the FY 2010 expires on Sept. 30.
The House last week rejected the proposed changes made by President Johnson Toribiong in the OEK version of the financial package.
Elbedechel said that after the House rejected the bill, members of the HOD were called to the Senate Chamber to explain about their vote.
A few hours after the Senate voted to accept the bill which essentially killed the measure.
“The Senate is putting the blame on us that the bill has died, but they could have saved the bill because the last action was on them,” Elbedechel stated.
He said that the Senate leadership has even asked the House to recall their vote and accept the president’s proposed changes. The delegates assured that they are not changing their vote.
The House voted against the bill due to questionable provisions that were unexplained by the Executive Branch and that the president did not stay within his original amount.
He added that the House and Senate members will be conducting a meeting to plan the next action.
The House he said is gearing towards the introduction of a continuing resolution this week to avoid a government shutdown.
Elbedechel said that it is the House opinion that the measure is not dead but the Senate stated that it is.
He noted that if the Senate believes that the bill would die after the House rejected it, they would have voted to reject it too, thus saving the measure.
