The Congress closed out its extraordinary session yesterday, leaving a long list of important legislation uncompleted. Most of these measures will have to be formally reintroduced when the new session of Congress is opened on Independence Day, February 27th. As such, they will have to go through a new round of hearings, committee reports and two readings in each chamber before they can be sent to the President for signature – even when some of them, such as the Financial and Monetary Code or the new export promotion law, have already been passed by one chamber. Other measures left to this fate include: the General Electricity Law; the new Health Code; the ratifications of the free trade agreements with Central America and the Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM); the tariff and tax reform bills; approvals for a series of international loans, including those for reconstruction after Hurricane Georges; the new law to allow the government to issue bonds; and the social security reform law.
