Bill waiving business license fees passes vote

Senators passed several bills, including one by Vice-Speaker Tina Barnes which waives business license fees for the next two years retroactive to Fiscal Year 2020.
Also approved was a measure by Senator Mary Torres which authorizes Govguam to enter the Nurse Licensure compact . Licensed nurses of compact member states and territories are automatically licensed to work in member jurisdictions.
Additionally, Senator Joe San Agustin's bill to allow fast-track conditional use approval of temporary foreign worker housing also passed. Speaker Therese Terlaje closed out the first session with a cautionary note about the government's finances, and urged her colleagues to stay on top of how monies will be spent.
She stated, "It must have an active role in how these hundreds of millions of dollars must be spent. I'm hoping that together with my colleagues we will be able to focus to assure that a abulk of this money goes toward assisting families out of poverty for good. Some of our families have lived in poverty for decades. We need to provide food, evident from the long food lines. A place to build homes, and infrastructure for those homes and the rest of the island."
The legislature will soon begin working on the next fiscal year budget.
The governor is also scheduled to deliver her state of the island address on March 8.