48 U.S.C. § 2144 — Review of activities to ensure compliance with Fiscal Plan
submitted 10 years ago by Pub. L. 114-187 to r/title-48-TERRITORIES-AND-INSULAR-POSSESSIONS · 1,422 words · no verdicts yet
This section requires the Governor to submit newly enacted laws to the Oversight Board with financial estimates and certifications. It gives the Board review and enforcement powers over laws, contracts, rules, regulations, executive orders, and budget changes, while protecting certain Federal-program actions.
(a) Submission of legislative acts to Oversight Board*. (1) Submission of acts. Unless the Board’s bylaws, rules, or procedures say otherwise, the Governor* must submit each law enacted by the territorial government* to the Board within 7 business days after enactment during a fiscal year in which the Board operates. (2) Cost estimate and certification. With each law, the Governor must include: (A) a formal estimate from an appropriate territorial-government entity with budget* and financial-management expertise showing any effect on spending and revenue; (B) if that entity finds the law is not significantly inconsistent with the fiscal-year Fiscal Plan*, its certification of that finding; or (C) if it finds the law is significantly inconsistent, its certification and reasons. (3) Notification. The Board must notify the Governor and Legislature* if (A) the law lacks the estimate, (B) it lacks either certification, or (C) it includes a certification of significant inconsistency. (4) Response. For a missing estimate or certification, the Board may direct the Governor to provide it under Board procedures. For significant inconsistency, the Board must direct the territorial government either (i) to correct the law or (ii) to explain the inconsistency in a way the Board finds reasonable and appropriate. (5) Failure to comply. If the government does not follow the direction, the Board may take necessary actions consistent with this chapter to protect Fiscal Plan compliance, including stopping enforcement or application of the law. (6) Preliminary review. At the Legislature’s request, the Board may review proposed legislation for consistency with the applicable Fiscal Plan. That review does not bind the Board when it later reviews the enacted law. (b) Contracts, rules, and regulations. (1) The Board must work with a covered territory’s comptroller or equivalent to promote compliance with applicable law requiring agencies to keep a public registry of executed contracts and amendments and send copies to the comptroller. For Puerto Rico*, “applicable law” means 2 L.P.R.A. 97, as amended; this section does not otherwise define that term. (2) The Board may require prior approval of certain contracts, including leases and proposed contracts with governmental entities or government-owned corporations rather than private enterprises, to promote competition and consistency with the approved Fiscal Plan. (3) Congress states that these policies should improve contracting, public confidence, use of Board resources, the government’s role as facilitator rather than competitor, and avoid extra bureaucratic obstacles. (4) The same rules apply to proposed rules, regulations, and executive orders issued by the Governor or a territorial department or agency head. (5) If a contract, rule, regulation, or executive order does not comply, the Board may take necessary actions consistent with this chapter, including stopping execution or enforcement. (c) Budget adjustments. (1) If the Governor asks the Legislature to reprogram amounts in a certified Budget, the Governor must send the request to the Board. The Board must analyze whether it is significantly inconsistent with the Budget and send its analysis to the Legislature as soon as practicable. (2) The Legislature and territorial officers and employees may not adopt or carry out the reprogramming until the Board provides an analysis certifying that it is not inconsistent with the Fiscal Plan and Budget. (3)(A) After a territory* becomes covered and before all Board members and the Chair are appointed, it may not enact a new law allowing funds or assets to move outside the ordinary course of business or conflicting with its constitution or laws as of June 30, 2016. Such movement may later be reviewed and rescinded by the fully appointed Board. (B) After full appointment, the Board may review and rescind a law enacted between May 4, 2016, and full appointment for Puerto Rico, or between 45 days before establishment and full appointment for another territory, if it changes creditors’ existing priorities outside the ordinary course of business or inconsistently with the specified constitution or laws. Rescission may reach only the changed priorities. (d) Federal programs. The Board may not use its authorities to obstruct territorial actions to (1) comply with a court consent decree or injunction or Federal-agency order or settlement concerning Federal programs, (2) implement a federally authorized or delegated program, (3) implement Fiscal-Plan-consistent territorial laws carrying out Federal requirements and standards, or (4) preserve and maintain federally funded mass-transportation assets.
Except to the extent that the Oversight Board may provide otherwise in its bylaws, rules, and procedures, not later than 7 business days after a territorial government* duly enacts any law during any fiscal year in which the Oversight Board is in operation, the Governor* shall submit the law to the Oversight Board.
The Governor shall include with each law submitted to the Oversight Board under paragraph (1) the following:
A formal estimate prepared by an appropriate entity of the territorial government with expertise in budgets and financial management of the impact, if any, that the law will have on expenditures and revenues.
If the appropriate entity described in subparagraph (A) finds that the law is not significantly inconsistent with the Fiscal Plan* for the fiscal year, it shall issue a certification of such finding.
If the appropriate entity described in subparagraph (A) finds that the law is significantly inconsistent with the Fiscal Plan for the fiscal year, it shall issue a certification of such finding, together with the entity’s reasons for such finding.
The Oversight Board shall send a notification to the Governor and the Legislature* if—
the Governor submits a law to the Oversight Board under this subsection that is not accompanied by the estimate required under paragraph (2)(A);
the Governor submits a law to the Oversight Board under this subsection that is not accompanied by either a certification described in paragraph (2)(B) or (2)(C); or
the Governor submits a law to the Oversight Board under this subsection that is accompanied by a certification described in paragraph (2)(C) that the law is significantly inconsistent with the Fiscal Plan.
After sending a notification to the Governor and the Legislature under paragraph (3)(A) or (3)(B) with respect to a law, the Oversight Board may direct the Governor to provide the missing estimate or certification (as the case may be), in accordance with such procedures as the Oversight Board may establish.
In accordance with such procedures as the Oversight Board may establish, after sending a notification to the Governor and Legislature under paragraph (3)(C) that a law is significantly inconsistent with the Fiscal Plan, the Oversight Board shall direct the territorial government to—
correct the law to eliminate the inconsistency; or
provide an explanation for the inconsistency that the Oversight Board finds reasonable and appropriate.
If the territorial government fails to comply with a direction given by the Oversight Board under paragraph (4) with respect to a law, the Oversight Board may take such actions as it considers necessary, consistent with this chapter, to ensure that the enactment or enforcement of the law will not adversely affect the territorial government’s compliance with the Fiscal Plan, including preventing the enforcement or application of the law.
At the request of the Legislature, the Oversight Board may conduct a preliminary review of proposed legislation before the Legislature to determine whether the legislation as proposed would be consistent with the applicable Fiscal Plan under this subtitle,1 except that any such preliminary review shall not be binding on the Oversight Board in reviewing any law subsequently submitted under this subsection.
The Oversight Board shall work with a covered territory’s office of the comptroller or any functionally equivalent entity to promote compliance with the applicable law of any covered territory* that requires agencies and instrumentalities of the territorial government to maintain a registry of all contracts executed, including amendments thereto, and to remit a copy to the office of the comptroller for inclusion in a comprehensive database available to the public. With respect to Puerto Rico*, the term “applicable law” refers to 2 L.P.R.A. 97, as amended.
The Oversight Board may establish policies to require prior Oversight Board approval of certain contracts, including leases and contracts to a governmental entity or government-owned corporations rather than private enterprises that are proposed to be executed by the territorial government, to ensure such proposed contracts promote market competition and are not inconsistent with the approved Fiscal Plan.
It is the sense of Congress that any policies established by the Oversight Board pursuant to paragraph (2) should be designed to make the government contracting process more effective, to increase the public’s faith in this process, to make appropriate use of the Oversight Board’s time and resources, to make the territorial government a facilitator and not a competitor to private enterprise, and to avoid creating any additional bureaucratic obstacles to efficient contracting.
The provisions of this paragraph shall apply with respect to a rule, regulation, or executive order proposed to be issued by the Governor (or the head of any department or agency of the territorial government) in the same manner as such provisions apply to a contract.
If a contract, rule, regulation, or executive order fails to comply with policies established by the Oversight Board under this subsection, the Oversight Board may take such actions as it considers necessary to ensure that such contract, rule, executive order or regulation will not adversely affect the territorial government’s compliance with the Fiscal Plan, including by preventing the execution or enforcement of the contract, rule, executive order or regulation.
If the Governor submits a request to the Legislature for the reprogramming of any amounts provided in a certified Budget, the Governor shall submit such request to the Oversight Board, which shall analyze whether the proposed reprogramming is significantly inconsistent with the Budget, and submit its analysis to the Legislature as soon as practicable after receiving the request.
The Legislature shall not adopt a reprogramming, and no officer or employee of the territorial government may carry out any reprogramming, until the Oversight Board has provided the Legislature with an analysis that certifies such reprogramming will not be inconsistent with the Fiscal Plan and Budget.
During the period after a territory* becomes a covered territory and prior to the appointment of all members and the Chair of the Oversight Board, such covered territory shall not enact new laws that either permit the transfer of any funds or assets outside the ordinary course of business or that are inconsistent with the constitution or laws of the territory as of June 30, 2016, provided that any executive or legislative action authorizing the movement of funds or assets during this time period may be subject to review and rescission by the Oversight Board upon appointment of the Oversight Board’s full membership.
Upon appointment of the Oversight Board’s full membership, the Oversight Board may review, and in its sole discretion, rescind, any law that—
was enacted during the period between, with respect to Puerto Rico, May 4, 2016; or with respect to any other territory, 45 days prior to the establishment of the Oversight Board for such territory, and the date of appointment of all members and the Chair of the Oversight Board; and
alters pre-existing priorities of creditors in a manner outside the ordinary course of business or inconsistent with the territory’s constitution or the laws of the territory as of, in the case of Puerto Rico, May 4, 2016, or with respect to any other territory, 45 days prior to the establishment of the Oversight Board for such territory;
but such rescission shall only be to the extent that the law alters such priorities.
In taking actions under this chapter, the Oversight Board shall not exercise applicable authorities to impede territorial actions taken to—
comply with a court-issued consent decree or injunction, or an administrative order or settlement with a Federal agency, with respect to Federal programs;
implement a federally authorized or federally delegated program;
implement territorial laws, which are consistent with a certified Fiscal Plan, that execute Federal requirements and standards; or
preserve and maintain federally funded mass transportation assets.
Source credit: (Pub. L. 114–187, title II, § 204, June 30, 2016, 130 Stat. 570.)
- 2016Enacted · Pub. L. 114-187 · 130 Stat. 570
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 114-187 on 2016-06-30.
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