Overview:
Budget negotiators in the House and Senate returned to the table on November 26 after more than a month of stalled talks, with lawmakers now racing to finalize the FY 2026 national budget before temporary funding expires in 33 days. Leaders signaled urgency, citing student scholarship shortfalls and the threat of government shutdown if no deal is reached.
By: L.N. Reklai
Ngerulmud, Palau (November 27, 2025) Conference committee negotiators from the House and Senate met for the first time in more than a month on November 26, after repeated postponements and cancellations due to lack of a House quorum. During the session, House Ways and Means Chairman Rechelulk announced that the House had approved the Senate’s proposal, known as CD1, and submitted additional funding requests to be incorporated into the final budget.
“We looked at the actual figures and President, the House committee approves it,” Rechelulk told conferees, adding that the House was ready to move forward with the Senate’s version plus some additional priorities. The House distributed working drafts of a committee report, a combined spreadsheet of both chambers’ versions, and a draft budget bill for review.
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Mark Rudimch confirmed that negotiators were prepared to work with the House and noted that November 26 marked the first meeting since scheduled sessions on October 27, 29 and 30 were postponed. Rudimch told the gathering he had not received any formal document or proposal from the House before the November 26 session.
Senate pushes for swift passage
Senate President Hokkons Baules used the opening of the session to press House leaders for immediate action, warning that 55 days had passed since lawmakers enacted the stopgap CBA in October with no progress on the full budget. “The whole country needs this budget,” Baules said, speaking in Palauan. “We cannot continue to do nothing while the whole country is looking to the Olbiil Era Kelulau to do something while continuously, nothing is being done.”
Baules laid out an ambitious schedule: finish negotiations by the end of the day, convene again on Monday solely to review signatures and the committee report, then hold back-to-back floor sessions on Tuesday—the House in the morning and the Senate in the afternoon—to pass the bill and transmit it to President Surangel Whipps Jr. by Wednesday. “We cannot let you drag us again for another week,” Baules told the House delegation.
Speaker Gibson Kanai endorsed the urgency, telling conferees both chambers were on the same page and should aim to complete the work.
Scholarship funding crisis underscores stakes
Before substantive talks began, Sen. Tabelual shared a November 25 letter from the Palau National Scholarship Board warning that students face reduced disbursements because the agency lacks sufficient funds under the temporary budget. “If this budget is not passed our students will have less than what they are supposed to receive,” Tabelual said.
Rechelulk acknowledged the scholarship shortfall but replied that the entire government faced closure if the budget was not passed. “The whole government can close, not just PNSB,” he said.
What comes next
Negotiators agreed to reconvene at 1 p.m. on November 27—Thanksgiving—to review the working documents and finalize next steps. If the timeline Baules proposed holds, the conference report could be ready for floor votes by early next week, giving Whipps several days to review, make line-item changes, and sign the bill before the December 31 deadline.
The budget talks have been marked by repeated delays tied to the absence of key House negotiators, some of whom traveled to the Philippines for the Asia Pacific Association for Fiduciary Studies (APAFS) conference in late November and returned only on November 26. Similar overseas travel by House leaders in September contributed to the last-minute scramble that nearly triggered a shutdown at the start of the fiscal year and forced passage of the temporary CBA.
The earlier rounds of negotiation exposed deeper disputes over salary policy, audit requirements, and spending priorities that had deadlocked the chambers for months. The Senate’s October 22 proposal redistributed about 5.4 million dollars from a cost-of-living adjustment package and replaced the President’s proposed across-the-board 10 percent pay raise with a more targeted approach. The House’s November 26 counteroffer accepted that framework but added new funding requests, though the total budget figure and details of the add-ons were not disclosed during the public session.
If lawmakers miss the December 31 deadline, Palau will again face the prospect of government closures, delayed payments and disruption to public services. The pressure is now on conferees to finalize the bill in the coming days and avoid plunging the country back into a budget crisis.