THE HOUSE of representatives yesterday approved next year's P1.542-trillion national budget, but its enactment into law in early January could be stalled as the Senate said it may be unable to pass the measure before the holidays.

House bill (HB) 6767 was okayed on third and final reading and appropriations committee chairman Rep. Junie E. Cua (Quirino) said "We are looking at transmitting the measure to the Senate (today) so that we could fast-track approval of the budget in Congress.

"There are no major realignments and the budget we passed has little difference from the one submitted by the DBM (Department of Budget and Management)," he said in a telephone interview.

House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles reiterated the need to have the THE HOUSE of Representatives yesterday approved next year’s P1.541-trillion national budget, but its enactment into law in early January could be stalled as the Senate said it may be unable to pass the measure before the holidays.

House Bill (HB) 6767 was okayed on third and final reading and appropriations committee chairman Rep. Junie E. Cua (Quirino) said "We are looking at transmitting budget ratified before the Christmas break, but Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel F. Zubiri said the House approval was delayed.

"We were expecting that the House should have approved the budget before the break last month and transmitted to us the copy of the budget upon resumption [of sessions].

"Now it will take a while ... I doubt if they can transmit [the budget] to us [today]. It still has to be printed out, it’s so thick; realistically speaking we can only receive it at the end of the week and tackle it next week," he said in a separate phone interview.

Lawmakers returned to work yesterday after a three-week break. Congress effectively has less than a month to approve the budget due to more scheduled breaks, with the next one set for Nov. 20-Dec. 1 for the filing of certificates of candidacy for next year’s elections, followed by a Dec. 19-Jan. 17 holiday hiatus.

Mr. Zubiri said the Senate needs at least two weeks to deliberate on the budget. "We could get the budget approved on third reading by the second week of December at the earliest," he said.

"We could squeeze in bicameral conference committee approval during the remaining three session days, but I am doubtful that we would be able to get the budget ratified during that time."

Asked if that would mean another re-enacted budget next year, Mr. Zubiri said: "We will try our best not to have that." -- J. F. S. Valdez