While your representatives The New Progressive Party (PNP) arrested against the record of the body in the first 70 days, the president of the chamber, Rafael “Tatito” Hernandez, defended the leadership, insisting that it laid the foundations for a more favorable process for the inclusion and participation of minorities, while calling for an assessment of the “quality” and not the “quantity” of legislative activity.
PNP legislators Gabriel Rodríguez Aguiló, Juan Oscar Morales Yes Victor Parés stressed that the majority People’s Democratic Party It has barely given way to the seven bills, while none of the bills have yet been approved by the Senate, implying that the governor Pedro Pierluisi it has not yet received legislation to sign it since the new four-year period began.
” Commission for Health One bill worked in the chamber, one (only), after questioning the health secretary (Carlos Mellado), with so many topics we can participate in. In economic terms, zero, they have no project. This is what we are saying, work on what you understand to be relevant, because public policy is up to the majority to determine it. Of course, if the majority wants the other parties to be represented in the Legislative Assembly, there is no problem, because this is the process of public hearings, which it convenes for us. But they have to participate in projects and they don’t. They focus on research, they speak in the stands, they repeal the laws and this does not produce anything positive for our people, ”said Rodríguez Aguiló, alternate spokesman for the Penepé minority.
The representatives indicated that, in the four-year periods from 2009 to 2012, 2013 to 2016 and 2017 to 2020, 34, 21 and 22 draft laws were approved at this point, respectively. In addition, they claimed that four years ago, in the “first months” of the government, both houses approved 21 legislative measures which were then signed by the then governor, Ricardo Rosselló.
Among the measures that would require greater urgency, according to Parés, are its author’s projects 345, 346 and 549. The first aims to “financially train” the workforce; second, it “regulates and controls” the elevator industry; and third, the amendment of the Permits Law.
Morales, meanwhile, demanded processing The draft law no. 503 so that the funds raised through a special fee for the purchase of tablets are intended exclusively Trauma Hospital, instead of giving the Secretary of Health discretion regarding its use.
Parés also pointed out that the slow pace of passing legislation is unjustifiable, as historically “98%” of projects are approved unanimously.
For his part, Rodríguez Aguiló criticized that a The code of ethics.
Reply to “Tatito”
Shortly afterwards, in a press conference, Hernández said he prefers to wait for the end of the current administration’s 100 days in April to make comparisons with the last four years and set a contrast with the last House of Representatives, ensuring that each measure will be debated before approval.
He also stressed that the current amendment process is more rigorous, as it involves holding a “marking session” (amendment session) at committee level before proceeding to the vote in plenary.
“The work (should not be) measured only in terms of quantity. You must also enter what is approved. At this moment, there is still a long way to go until the end of the 100 days of the House of Representatives, on April 22. The PNP approved a regulation in early January (2017), but left it ineffective for two months. We approved it by consensus, in dialogue, giving them information, on January 25. We even have “increases”. Not only is the measure seen, the changes are discussed before reaching the “floor”, but the “floor” must be defended. It is a dramatic contrast, there is no more obscurantism “, argued Hernández, who added that he hopes that the body will approve the Internal Code of Ethics on March 18.
Among the achievements of this lower house, Hernández included the investigation of the contract for the privatization of the electricity transmission and distribution network, which raised public questions about the prerogatives granted to the consortium. Luma Energy disasters and the protection of the work of its current employees Electricity Authority.
Similarly, Hernández validated the emphasis on repealing or amending laws passed in the last four years, as was the case with laws 165 and 167 of 2020, which, respectively, allow the governor to convene a status referendum unilaterally and order elections with public funds to elect state lobbyists.
“The last four years have been so bad and so bad that the citizens and voters of Puerto Rico have given us a mandate and forged a diverse Legislative Assembly, defeating the PNP majority. The governor is penepé, the resident police station is penepé, but the Legislative Assembly is popular, for The Dignity Project and from The Citizen Victory Movement, that they all have an overwhelming majority. Most of the measures that are here are to repeal the insensitive, abusive and abusive public policy of the last four years “, the president of the Chamber underlined.