We thank the House of Representatives and Speaker Lord Allan Velasco for making good on their commitment to send the 2021 General Appropriations Bill to the Senate by October 28. This gives us time to go over the amendments made to the NEP as we start drafting the committee report on the budget measure. We also thank our vice chairpersons and members of the Senate for submitting inputs on what should be in the committee report. We await the submissions of our Finance Committee vice chairpersons who are in the process of completing their respective reports.

We endeavor to come up with the committee report on or before November 10 and start the plenary debates on the measure.

This also gives us greater confidence in being able to pass the 2021 national budget in December and leave the President with enough time to go over the bill and sign it before the year ends. This shows that all the members of Congress are cognizant of the need to approve the budget on time, now more than ever because of the challenges our country is facing due to the pandemic. #budgetngbayan