The 38th Guam Legislature on Monday, Aug. 10, unanimously voted to pass Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero's Bill 1 (9-S) to fund Super Typhoon Bavi response and recovery, childcare subsidy payments and a bailout of the Guam International Airport Authority - a measure lawmakers spent last week sifting through during a special session.
Bill 1 (9-S) is an act to appropriate from fiscal 2026 general fund revenues up to $13,361,849 to Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero for Super Typhoon Bavi response and recovery, $7,630,000 for childcare subsidy payments and $17,654,625 to cover operational costs at the Guam International Airport Authority.
Though Sen. Therese Terlaje voted to pass the bill, she called it "peculiar" because the three items are "completely unrelated," aside from the conveyed urgency.
"One was a typhoon, and our emergency response. ... And then there was the daycare, which they described to be an urgent, urgent response that was needed, but we found out that they had, they still have the June daycare money ready to be dispersed, and they're just doing their process to disperse it. Meanwhile, we have childcare organizations here telling us they haven't been paid, you know, they need to be paid," Terlaje said.
She highlighted the "big disconnect" between what's been said and "the reality of the situation."
"So, the reality of the situation is there is money to pay the June invoices. They're now in July, they're now in August, and they need to submit those invoices, get those paid. And so hopefully this money that we pass today is going to go towards them as quickly as possible," Terlaje said.
Terlaje pointed to the bigger issue revealed during the special session discussions - the lack of a plan moving forward.
"What we found out during these proceedings is that childcare funds, federal funds have been short for the last couple years, but there is no plan going forward to, what are they going to do about that? And so, they come in here with this ... need for emergency funds because they promised more than they knew in advance that they would ever be able to cover," Terlaje said.
She said the same issue appears with the Guam International Airport Authority, which through Bill 1 (9-S) would receive funding to carry it through the end of fiscal year 2026.
"It's very clear from their testimony. They don't have a plan either. We're going to give them some money to get through 2026 without raising their, their, um, fees to the airlines that gets them through 2026. It might give them some bond payments for 2027, but they had no plan. They still seem to have no plan as to cut expenses enough to cover these expenses going forward, as all other autonomous agencies have to do," Terlaje said.