The V.I. Legislature voted Friday to override Gov. John deJongh Jr.’s veto to enact legislation expanding the role of chiropractors to allow them to sell herbal supplements from their offices, expanding their ability to order x-rays and allow them to perform routine physicals to assess a person’s ability to participate in sports.
The bill sponsored by Sen. Sammuel Sanes, with several cosponsors, also would update licensing requirements and change the Board of Chiropractic Examiners to include four chiropractors and one layman instead of two chiropractors, two physicians and one layman.
The Senate initially voted to approve the measure during session in June. DeJongh vetoed it in July, saying he supported the bill’s “overall goals,” but vetoed it because the legislation’s language had “flaws.” He said at the time that he supports the national trend toward expansion of chiropractic treatment services and that he hopes legislators will revisit the bill.
Sanes made a motion Friday to consider overriding the veto. There was no debate or discussion of why the veto was being overridden or what flaws deJongh may have been concerned about. No changes were made to the legislation.
Voting to override the governor’s veto and enact the bill were Sanes, Sens. Craig Barshinger, Judi Buckley, Diane Capehart, Kenneth Gittens, Myron Jackson, Shawn-Michael Malone, Terrence “Positive” Nelson, Nereida “Nellie” Rivera-O’Reilly and Tregenza Roach. No senators voted against the override. Sens. Clifford Graham, Alicia “Chucky” Hansen, Clarence Payne and Janette Millin Young abstained. Sen. Donald Cole was absent.
In another measure concerning deJongh, the Senate passed a resolution it termed a “vote of no confidence” in the governor. Many, if not all, the senators said on the floor that they were unhappy with the governor’s recent radio address blaming the Legislature for inaction on budget bills and asking it to reconsider its vote to reject an amended agreement for a sale process for the Hovensa refinery. Several senators spoke about the difficulty of putting together a budget when the administration submitted it late, submitted requests for additional funding, without a source of funding, and then reduced revenue projections.
Buckley, Rivera-O’Reilly, Hansen, Young and others said they were upset that they did not have current balances for the various government accounts.
Barshinger referred to the budget submitted by the administration as “illegally out of balance.”
Nelson moved to have the Senate issue a “vote of no confidence in this administration,” citing these and other complaints about the administration, including work done on a security fence and gate at government expense at deJongh’s private residence back in 2006. (See related links below)
Six senators voted for the motion: Barshinger, Capehart, Gittens, Nelson, O’Reilly and Young. Roach voted no. Seven senators abstained: Buckley, Graham, Hansen, Jackson, Malone, Payne and Sanes. Cole was absent.
After the vote, Nelson asked Legislative Legal Counsel Lisa Moorhead what consequences the vote would have.
“There are no consequences other than you have recorded a vote of no confidence” Lisa Moorhead said.
In a parliamentary system of government, such as the United Kingdom, where the legislative body forms a government from its members, a vote of no confidence indicates the official or government administration no longer has the confidence of the body that selected it. For that reason, it presages the replacement of the official or the dissolution of government.
In a dual legislative-executive system such as the U.S. Congress and U.S. state and territorial governments, it is more common to use a motion of censure, which is a formal act of a legislature criticizing or disapproving of particular acts of a government official. The U.S. Congress has passed motions of no confidence on rare occasion, but unlike in a parliamentary system, such votes have only symbolic significance and are similar in effect to motions of censure.
