The House of Representatives will not hold a plenary session for two days starting August 17, Monday.
This was disclosed by House Secretary General Atty. Jose Luis G. Montales in an advisory to House members, officials, and employees.
"To allow members to focus on Bayanihan 2 and to give the committees ample time to conclude their hearings and finish their reports on priority measures, the House leadership has decided not to hold a plenary session on August 17 (Monday) and August 18 (Tuesday)," he said.
"The Committee on Rules will open then close the sessions," he added.
On Monday, the House Committee on Appropriations and Senate Committee on Finance are expected to conduct a video conference to reconcile the disagreeing provisions of House Bill No. 6953 and Senate Bill No 1564, the proposed "Bayanihan to Recover As One Act."
Such a decision was arrived at in the wake of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the House of Representatives.
On Sunday, the Lower Chamber recorded its 44th case of coronavirus disease in an employee from the Plenary Support Service who was a close contact of an infected personnel from the House Committee on Rules, and who reported for work from August 3 to 5.
Montales said various Committees are encouraged to virtually conduct hearings on their priority measures.
"The House leadership encourages Committees to hear all priority measures via Zoom this week so that the plenary can take them up in the last week of August and start budget hearings in the first week of September," he said.
Last Tuesday, the Lower Chamber decided to suspend regular sessions until August 17 after Senior Citizens party-list Rep. Francisco “Jun” Datol Jr. passed away due to complications brought about by COVID-19.
"The session break will give ample time for a thorough disinfection of all offices and facilities in the House of Representatives and give employees a brief respite from the aggravation caused by the spike in COVID cases," Majority Leader and Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez said.
"The session break will also enable the various committees of the House of Representative to fast-track the reporting of all COVID-related measures for plenary consideration when we resume session," he added.