Nez vetoes cancellation, blasts Council

Posted by Navajo Times | Apr 20, 2020 | Politics |

WINDOW ROCK

President Jonathan Nez has vetoed a resolution approved Friday by the Navajo Nation Council that canceled the spring session, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Citing a 2010 court decision that said Council routinely uses emergencies to bypass the review and approval process for legislation, Nez said the Council should recognize the right of the people to be informed and participate and “not cower behind ill-conceived legislation as to cause a blackout or void of public information.”

Seth Damon, speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, said President Jonathan Nez’s words justifying his veto of the resolution that canceled the spring session were “genuinely surprising.”

Stating that the president is elected by popular vote of the entire Navajo Nation, Damon said in a news release Monday morning, “But for a single president to state, in his own words, that the 24 delegates of the Navajo Nation Council ‘cower behind ill-conceived legislation’ ultimately intended to protect the more than 30 legislative branch employees required to put on a regular session is genuinely surprising.”

Both Nez and Damon said in their news releases that the spring session will begin on Monday at 10 a.m.