Electoral Reform, Economy Stimulus In Legislature For 2002

[Patria_y_LaPava]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Electoral Reform, Economy Stimulus In Legislature For 2002

DECEMBER 15, 2001
Copyright © 2001 ASSOCIATED PRESS.
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SAN JUAN (AP) - The House of Representatives aims to work during 2002 on electoral reform, while the Senate will direct legislation that will impulse the creation of jobs, according to the heads of the Legislature.

Senate President Antonio Fas Alzamora said he will continue to strengthen friendship links with sister nations and work with economic decentralization so that the economy will stimulate in the island's central and western regions.

He will also be attentive to the privatization processes of the public corporations that provide essential services to the island, seek the self-sufficiency of agriculture, and the improvement of health services.

In this aspect, House Speaker Carlos Vizcarrondo aims to impulse filed legislation to consider the convenience of the government becoming the only insurer of the health reform, which would mean a significant savings in the administrative line that now supplies the insurance companies.

As for electoral reform, he said he will wait for the bill that Gov. Sila Calderon is sending, and he will complement it with initiatives that he had taken in the past, which he plans on reactivating.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rican Independence Party Rep. Victor Garcia San Inocencio hopes for more space for his legislative initiatives.

In the case of House New Progressive Party (NPP) Minority Leader Anibal Vega Borges, he said his expectations for 2002 are that Calderon will not veto so many bills.