2019 Report: Legislative Monitoring Program Report

LEON notes that two thirds of all bills passed in 2019 were passed by either or both the House of Representative and the Senate in the three months between August and October. These included the National Budget and eight propositions for changes to the constitution –key pieces of legislation that will have a lasting impact on the country. The legislature was meant to go on agricultural leave from the end of September 2019 until mid January 2020. However this was delayed until end October by several Presidential (executive) orders so that the National Budget for July 2019 to June 2020, could be passed along with other key pieces of legislation and several presidential appointees, including the new Governor Central bank of Liberia could be confirmed by the senate. The budget for July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 was only introduced to the legislature on July 1, 2019. The need for detailed understanding and debate made the extended sitting of the Legislature inevitable.