NewsWhore
01-10-2008, 01:20 PM
The Chamber of Deputies has approved the 2008 Budget and Public Spending Law for the amount of RD$300 billion. The final step in making the bill official is for President Leonel Fernandez to sign the budget into law. The budget was approved with 94 votes in favor, 3 votes against and 34 abstentions. The opposition PRD deputies continued to insist that the bill should be sent to a commission to increase allocations for the education, public health, agriculture and judiciary departments, but the PLD majority overruled this.
Chamber of Deputies president Julio Cesar Valentin accused some legislators of reinserting their non-governmental agencies into the 2008 budget with allocations of RD$1 billion. This is in addition to the "barrilitos", or funding already approved for their discretionary use, in addition to wages and benefits, already the most generous in government.
Nevertheless, he said that although he did not agree with the NGO funding, the deputies were obliged to pass the budget presented by the Senate because the legislature expires next Saturday, 15 January. It the bill had been sent to commission, it would expire and a new bill would have had to be sent from the Executive Branch and the Congressional process would have to restart.
Valentin said that as long as he is in his current post he would never again approve a budget without studying it fully, as he said he had to do when it first was sent to the Chamber in late December.
The government approved a RD$4.87 billion budget for the 210-member Congress.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
Chamber of Deputies president Julio Cesar Valentin accused some legislators of reinserting their non-governmental agencies into the 2008 budget with allocations of RD$1 billion. This is in addition to the "barrilitos", or funding already approved for their discretionary use, in addition to wages and benefits, already the most generous in government.
Nevertheless, he said that although he did not agree with the NGO funding, the deputies were obliged to pass the budget presented by the Senate because the legislature expires next Saturday, 15 January. It the bill had been sent to commission, it would expire and a new bill would have had to be sent from the Executive Branch and the Congressional process would have to restart.
Valentin said that as long as he is in his current post he would never again approve a budget without studying it fully, as he said he had to do when it first was sent to the Chamber in late December.
The government approved a RD$4.87 billion budget for the 210-member Congress.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)