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Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesREORGANIZATION BILL RETURNED TO COMMITTEE

REORGANIZATION BILL RETURNED TO COMMITTEE

The Senate Rules Committee, by a 3-2 vote, sent the Turnbull administration’s proposal to reorganize portions of the government back to the Government Operations Committee Thursday to get more input from departments that would be most affected by the proposal.
The proposed Government Reorganization, Consolidation and Financial Act of 1999 would consolidate several agencies that deal with public housing in the territory.
At the Rules hearing on Thursday, V.I. Housing Authority director Conrad Francois wasn’t present. Without testimony from the agency heads on how the legislation would affect them, committee chair Violet Anne Golden said, the bill should be either tabled or sent back to the originating Government Operations Committee.
"There needs to be more discussion… because there are different agencies that will have major impact," Sen. Almando "Rocky" Liburd said.
In addition, the consensus among the Rules Committee members was that the bill is "very confusing and needs to be reworked," Golden said.
Five of the seven Rules Committee members were present at Thursday's meeting. Sens. Golden, Liburd and Vargrave Richards voted in favor of sending the bill back to the originating committee. Sens. Gregory Bennerson and Judy Gomez voted against. Sens. Adelbert Bryan and Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg were absent.
In other action, the committee approved the governor's renomination of Oliver David to a second term as director of gaming enforcement and the nomination of Zandra Messiah to serve on the Public Employees Relations Board.
Both now go to the full Senate for final consideration.
In a statement, David said his office has received 246 individual applications and 26 corporate applications for investigation before the applicants can do business in the territory's casino industry.
"Though we are not progressing as quickly as I would like, the thoroughness of our investigation has paid off," David said.

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