Opposition to a part time Legislature
Recently there has been a push by a small group of people to
turn the Guam Legislature into a part time body. Their justification for this is to reduce the
expenses necessary to fund a full time Legislature and to reduce the numbers of
bills and resolutions that are passed each year. They also say that there are a
lot of state legislatures on the U.S. mainland that are part time, and have
been a success. We here at Guam Politics and Happenings strongly oppose the idea
of turning the Legislature into a part time body for several important reasons:
What works for other states won’t necessarily work for Guam
= A majority of the states that utilize part time Legislatures are states that
have little important business other than passing a budget, legislative
redistricting, and confirming the executive’s cabinet appointees. Occasionally
the legislature would be called into a special session to address issues that
have come up into the public view. This is all good and well for these states,
and all the power to them for that. However, Guam is entirely different from
the jurisdictions that have part time legislatures. Those states do not sit on
the doorstep of Asia with potential conflicts that may brew up at any time nor do those states do
not rely almost entirely on tourists from the surrounding countries. Those
states do not have to constantly address land issues on an island only 30 miles
in size. Natural disasters that may impact the island AT ANY TIME and which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fix do
not regularly and consistently impact those states. Those states are not late
in paying their tax refunds to their residents or are deficient in services
that members of a full time Legislature have to fix whenever such problems come
up.
And what about that “huge” numbers of bills and resolutions
that are passed each year? Most of the bills and resolutions are technical in
nature, attempting to modernize Guam’s aging system of laws. There are also
important laws that are passed that serve to emphasize the position of the
Legislative Branch as an equal and entirely separate branch of government. If
there is a push to reduce the powers of the Legislature, then there needs to be
a corresponding push to reduce the powers of the Governor. Any person can tell
you that in our democratic system of government, the Executive Branch is
checked by the Legislative Branch, and no one branch is supreme above all. If
the people supporting the reduction of powers and responsibility of the Guam
Legislature get their way, an all powerful Executive Branch is exactly what we
will have.
