House officials see budget bill approval before Sept. 30 recess

HOUSE officials said on Tuesday that the 2023 budget bill is on track to be approved before the Sept. 30 Congressional recess.

Majority Leader Manuel Jose M. Dalipe told the Ugnayan sa Batasan Majority News Forum that legislators will approve the budget bill on time as it did last year.

“We were able to beat the September deadline last Congress, giving all members of the House of Representatives time to deliberate… with all the departments,” according to Mr. Dalipe, who represents Zamboanga City’s second district.

Marikina Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo said the House expects the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to be submitted on Aug. 22. The NEP is the National Government’s spending plan, which will form the basis for budget legisla-tion. Once passed into law, the bill will be known as the General Appropriations Act.

“After that, we will now have the budget briefings,” Ms. Quimbo, also senior vice-chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said.

“So the sequential budget briefings with every agency will start on Aug. 26, with a briefing by the Development and Budget Coordination Committee.”

She said that the committee plans to complete hearings for each agency by Sept. 16. — Matthew Carl L. Montecillo