And now unto the business of the day: it was a very packed agenda at this first working session: with 8 bills and 2 motions on the agenda.
But all that had to wait until after 11 ministers made statements about the state they found their ministries in.
We'll have all that - but first to the most important piece of legislative business; that is, the passage of a supplementary appropriations bill. That was presented this afternoon, and, before it was, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance John Briceno explained why it was very necessary:
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"What we are looking at is that the previous government has left us - they borrowed about 510 million dollars this year. There is a hole or a crater of 300 million dollars that we have to find a way how we are going to close that. What we have to do today in the appropriation bill is to put the necessary monies for the emergencies that we have from hurricanes and the floodings and the pandemic. For instance, we are approving 15 million dollars for the ministry of health. We are approving 12 million for infrastructure to assist in the repairing of some of the infrastructure. We are approving monies for the Grocery bag program, because the UDP spent everything, they left nothing. So we have to be approving all of these monies. That is what we will be doing this afternoon."
