It looks like the Executive Branch could get the needed votes to pass the 2020 National Budget as sent by the President’s office. The bill has already passed in the Senate.
“The country can’t be stopped,” is the argument now being used by legislators that support President Leonel Fernandez in the Chamber of Deputies to justify voting in favor of the National Budget as submitted by the Executive Branch. Fernández and his followers recently split from the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), setting distance. But the recent announcement the Leonelistas are open to voting marks a change in their previous strong opposition stand.
Legislators representing the Social Christian Reformist Party (PRSC) also say they will vote for the bill in the session scheduled for Tuesday, 17 December 2019.
“The General Budget is an instrument of development that you cannot paralyze by politicizing it.,” said Máximo Castro Silverio, spokesman for the PRSC deputies, as reported in N Digital.
Meanwhile, deputy Juan Carlos Quiñones, of the People’s Force, the new party of former President Fernandez, indicated that it is “impossible” to paralyze the development of the Dominican Republic. He said deputies backing President Fernández would vote in favor with some observations.
However, Alfredo Pacheco, spokesman for the block of deputies of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), said that until public spending is redirected, the PRM will not vote in favor of the 2020 National Budget bill, because it is “deficitary.”
The Senate voted to pass the National Budget on Thursday. It is for a record RD$997 billion in spending as received from the Presidency.
The Chamber of Deputies can approve the National Budget with just the majority of a minimum of 96 legislators attending the assembly.
Read more in Spanish:
N Digital
Diario Libre
Hoy
17 December 2019