GREAT BAY--Member of Parliament Sjamira Roseburg has submitted a budget-neutral amendment to the 2026 national budget to make Cg 100,000 available for the temporary hiring of legislative lawyers, describing the proposal as a practical follow-up to a motion she authored in 2025 calling for government to address the shortage of legislative drafting capacity.
The amendment would reduce the Disaster Management allocation under the Ministry of General Affairs by Cg 100,000 and increase the budget for the hiring of third parties under the Department of Legal Affairs and Legislation by the same amount. The total level of expenditure would therefore remain unchanged.
Roseburg’s latest proposal builds on action taken during the 2025 budget period, when she authored a motion concerning the shortage of legislative lawyers. The motion was presented in Parliament by MP Sarah Wescot-Williams and sought additional external legislative support for government.
Roseburg has continued raising the issue since then. During the handling of the 2026 budget, she reminded government that Parliament had already acted on the shortage and questioned what progress had been made in implementing the earlier motion. Government’s own budget responses confirmed that Legal Affairs and Legislation remains severely understaffed and that external support is being explored.
The MP said the new amendment is intended to move the matter beyond another request for action by creating actual budgetary room for legislative lawyers to be brought in on a consultancy basis.
According to the amendment, St. Maarten is experiencing significant capacity problems because of a structural personnel shortage within Legal Affairs and Legislation, a department responsible for essential government functions including reviewing legislation and regulations, providing legal advice and facilitating the publication of laws and regulations.
The existing staffing shortage has left the department without sufficient capacity to carry out all of its responsibilities properly and on time. Long-standing vacancies have also increased the workload on the employees who remain, contributing to delays in legal requests, legislative reviews, legal advice and other work handled by the department.
Roseburg’s amendment proposes temporarily bringing in legislative lawyers while government continues recruitment and selection procedures to permanently fill vacant positions. The external support is specifically intended as a bridge until structural staffing can be restored.
The MP has repeatedly stressed that the shortage affects more than the Legal Affairs Department itself. Ministries across government depend on legislative lawyers to convert policy plans into legislation, review proposed laws and move regulatory changes through the required legal process.
During the budget debate, Roseburg noted that numerous ministers had identified legislation they considered urgent, but argued that those intentions will remain stalled if government does not have enough qualified people to execute the legal work.
Her position is that Parliament already identified the problem in 2025 and supported action to increase legislative capacity, making the 2026 amendment a financial step toward implementing what was previously agreed.
The amendment’s Cg 100,000 would come from savings within the Disaster Management budget associated with St. Maarten’s insurance coverage through the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, CCRIF. According to the explanatory notes, savings were achieved through a more favorable insurance option, leaving room within the existing allocation for the proposed reallocation.
Government has itself acknowledged the seriousness of the staffing problem. During the 2026 budget process, Prime Minister Dr. Luc Mercelina informed Parliament that only five of 17 positions within Legal Affairs and Legislation were filled, that the department head position was vacant and that only one legislative lawyer was working in the legislation section. Government has also been exploring external support, including cooperation with Kingdom partners and other mechanisms to increase legislative capacity.
Roseburg’s amendment therefore seeks to attach funding to an issue Parliament has already identified and government has acknowledged, allowing external legislative expertise to be brought in while longer-term recruitment continues.
