SAIPAN — The Senate will take up 14 bills on final reading and four conference committee reports when it convenes the first day of its Fourth Special Session on Wednesday, June 17 at 10:30 a.m. in the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill, but House Bill 24-84, the retiree pension measure pushed publicly by Representative BJ Attao, does not appear on the published agenda.
The bill calendar released Friday by the Office of the Senate Clerk includes some of the session’s heaviest pending measures. House Bill 24-15 would establish collective bargaining for public sector employees. Senate Bill 24-53 would prohibit the Office of the Attorney General from issuing criminal investigative subpoenas unless explicitly authorized by CNMI law or a judicial officer. Senate Bill 24-55, known as the Patrick Henry Camacho Castro Act, would establish Higher Fine Zones with increased traffic penalties in school zones, construction zones and other high-risk areas.
Also on final reading: bills to authorize the Department of Corrections to pay inmates and establish work programs, create a Police Reserve Unit within the Department of Public Safety, re-establish a government liability cap, rename the fire service’s Commissioner to Fire Chief, modernize business licensing, and rename the Guma’ Hustisia in recognition of Elias Parong Sablan.
Four conference committee reports are also calendared, including three tied to Super Typhoon Sinlaku recovery: companion bills appropriating $300,000 each in CEDA dividends from CUC for disaster relief operations in the First and Second Senatorial Districts, and a bill appropriating $960,235.74 in Tobacco Settlement Funds to the Marianas Visitors Authority for tourism recovery initiatives. The fourth covers Marianas Public Land Trust interest income.
Among the messages from Governor David M. Apatang awaiting the body are the proposed FY 2027 budget, the veto of House Bill 24-49 establishing a Next Generation 911 system, with an override deadline of June 29, line-item vetoes on Public Law 24-20, and Executive Order 2026-009 renewing the state of significant emergency.
The Senate’s agenda notes the body may consider, debate or act upon any item contained in the order of business. HB 24-84, which would address the 25 percent retiree pension payments the government has told the Settlement Fund it will stop funding beyond July 31, was not among the House transmittals or calendared bills as of the agenda’s release.
The session convenes in the Vice Speaker Jesus P. Mafnas Memorial Building, with public comment taken at the start of the session.
