A joint Senate and House committee in the Northern Marianas trying to break the fiscal year 2012 budget deadlock is poised to decide today whether to increase funding for education.
If the meeting reaches middle ground on the main differences between the House and Senate budget bills, a draft conference budget bill could be prepared by the end of the day.
Senator Jovita Taimanao says the word shutdown is not in the delegates' vocabulary.
If the House and Senate fail to pass a budget that's also acceptable to the administration before October the 1st, the government will again partially shut down.
