Government of the Federated States of Micronesia

FSM President Falcam Vetoes 11 Congressional Acts

POHNPEI, Palikir (FSM Information Service): January 7, 2002 –
FSM President Leo A. Falcam vetoed eleven (11) of eighteen
(18) Congressional Acts transmitted to his office for approval after the
Second Regular Session of the Twelfth FSM Congress held October 9-30, 2001.
The other 7 Acts have been signed into law.

The seven Congressional Acts that were signed into laws included the
following: (1) Public Law No. 12-13, which declares a temporary moratorium
on the immigration of certain alien workers to be in effect for one year;
(2) Public Law No. 12-14, which amends section 405 of Title 24 of the FSM
Code to remove the requirement for joint approval of fishing agreements by
the committees on Ways and Means (W&M) and Resource and Development (R&D)
between sessions of Congress; (3) Public Law No. 12-15, which amend Public
Law No. 8-75 section 2, to change the use of certain funds appropriated for
Yap State; (4) Public Law No. 12-16, amending Title 55 of the FSM Code, to
establish a “S” Account within the FSM Trust Fund which will be used to save
compact “bump up” funds in FY 2002 & 2003 to be used in FY 2004 and
thereafter to stabilize the transition to the renegotiated terms of the
Compact of Free Association. (5) Public Law No. 12-17, which authorize the
FSM to borrow approximately $8,019,000 from the Asian Development Bank and
re-lend approximately $6,504,169 to the states for the purpose of funding
basic social services projects; (6) Public Law No. 12-18, which amends Title
54 of the FSM Code, section 112, to exempt from gross revenue tax, the
sale of fish by foreign or domestic fishing vessels to processing facilities
in the FSM and the sale of bait fish to foreign or domestic fishing vessels,
and to make numerous technical corrections, and (7) Public Law No. 12-19,
which authorizes the FSM to borrow approximately $13,017,158 from the Asian
Development Bank and re-lend approximately $9,238,520 to the States for the
Purpose of funding private sector development programs and projects.

The President vetoed eleven (11) of the Congressional Acts transmitted to
his office after the Second Regular Session. This represents an
unprecedented disapproval of the decisions of Congress by the President.

Significantly, included in the Acts vetoed was Congressional Act No. 12-13
which was an override of one line-item vetoed by the President in the Fiscal
Year 2002 Budget Act, which was signed into law on August 19, 2001. The
Second Regular Session was Congress’ first opportunity to consider the
President’s line-item veto of three appropriations included in the budget.
Two of the items vetoed were not overridden, but the appropriation of
$45,000.00 for the operations of the Chuuk State Commission on Improvement
Projects was overridden by vote of three of the State Delegations, as
required by FSM Constitution.

In his veto message, the President raised concerns about the form of the Act
that represents Congress’ action in overriding the item veto. He states
“However inadvertently, Congress has acted outside its narrow authority to
override my veto. The result is a new act which is again subject to
Executive Branch review, because it exceeds the narrow subject matter of my
veto.” Under the FSM Constitution, the President has no authority to veto
the override of a veto. It is therefore, the position of Congress that the
veto-override is law, and became effective the date of the vote to override.
This issue remains unresolved between the two branches.

Also vetoed by the President was Congressional Act No. 12-20 which sought to
amend the Fiscal Year 2002 Budget Act to address the other two item-veto
concerns of the President, to provide supplemental funding to the
Constitutional Convention, to change the allottee of the Constitutional
Convention funding, and to make other re-designation of funding sources
within the budget to eliminate the slight over-appropriation that exist in
the General Fund. The President’s reasons for vetoing this Act were that the
Act was dependent upon Congressional Act No. 12-13 (the override) which was
vetoed, and therefore this Act must also be vetoed.

Congressional Act No. 12-18 sought to retroactively extend the lapse date
for four Public Laws that lapsed on September 30, 2001, in order to preserve
the availability of unexpended funds under Public Laws Nos. 10-120, 10-145,
11-36 and 11-54. The President vetoed this Act for two reasons. Firstly,
he stated that the bill addressed more than one subject. Secondly, he
stated that allowing the retroactive extension of the lapse date is
“inconsistent with the Financial Management Act”.

The other eight (8) Acts which were vetoed by the President were for reasons
such as vagueness of projects defined, disapproval of the process of
re-designating appropriated funds to “complete projects” in order to define
new used for remaining funds, and in the case of seven of eight Acts,
re-designating as allottee an entity which is a defacto, but not a legal,
development authority under Chuuk State law.

The Twelfth Congress expects to meet in a Special Session sometime this
quarter to address the vetoed Acts and other pending legislation.

Individuals desiring additional information regarding the Acts vetoed, or
desiring a copy of the Presidential Communications stating the reasons for a
given veto, may contact the Congress Library, Congress’ Central office, or
the President’s Office for copies of the relevant documents.