Also left on the shelf is the plan to consolidate operations in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
     The session adjourned Tuesday for the holidays, leaving several bills still in committee. The next session will resume in January.
     
     Not even a last-minute intervention by the Secretary of State and head of the Committee for Executive Branch Reorganization, Kenneth McClintock could save the measures.
     
     Two main problems are associated with Reorganization Plan No.1, which would fuse the administrative operations of all advocacy offices, including the Office of the Elderly People.
     The first is to which branch the offices would be reporting.
     The House measure would place the advocacy offices under the Executive while the Senate has them under the Legislative.
     The other issue surrounding the merger is the guarantee of the federal funding each office now receives.
     “I need guarantees that no federal funds will be lost because of this transfer, and the modifications made in the Senate do not suffice,” said Rep. Carlos ‘Johnny’ Méndez.
     Méndez is the Chairman of the House Government Committee, which has been evaluating the reorganization plan since March.
     “Only under the Executive branch would federal funding be guaranteed; that’s why we are insisting on placing the agencies there,” Méndez said.
     His counterpart in the Senate, New Progressive Party Sen. Carmelo Ríos, does not subscribe to the notion that federal fund could be lost if only the administrative operations of the offices are transferred to the legislative branch.
     Furthermore, he questioned the soundness of placing the offices under the same branch they are monitoring.
     “I have serious qualms regarding the placement of the offices in the branch of government they have powers to monitor and to submit complaints against," Ríos said. "They can’t prosecute government agencies if they are one of them.” The possibility of losing federal funding, especially at the elderly advocacy office, has been under scrutiny after the office’s director, Rossana López, revealed that her agency could lose the $26 million assigned to them if the plan is approved.
     She has repeatedly said that no local government official has discussed the plan with the federal authorities in charge of providing funds for the office, a must if the flow is to continue.
     McClintock dismissed the charge, suggesting that it was politically motivated.
     “The fact that some people think we are not talking this matter over with federal officials does not mean that discussions are not underway," the Secretary said. "I guarantee that no federal funds will be lost with this plan.”
     
     Meanwhile, Reorganization Plan No. 8, which would alter the structure of the Department of Corrections, is also slated to rest for the holiday season because it does not have the support of Ríos and other members of the Senate Government Committee.
     “We will rest on the reorganization plan because we have problems with it that have not been resolved. The main function of the Department must be the rehabilitation of the inmates and I’m not sure this plan provides that in its current form,” Ríos said.
     Ríos has stated in the past that he would like to eliminate the department altogether, replacing it with the old format that includes replacing the figure of the Secretary and appointing an Administrator.
     
     The concept was cooly received by McClintock, who has been pushing for this plan more forcefully than any of the others the administration has submitted so far this year