The Guam Legislature recessed session until Friday morning after the "wrong" bill was printed and provided to senators who were supposed to be reviewing the fiscal year 2027 budget bill.
Sen. Chris Duenas, chair of the Committee on Finance and Government Operations, motioned to resolve into the committee of the whole for deliberations on the correct budget bill. However, the confusion prompted several senators to voice concerns, among them Sen. Chris Barnett, who requested clarification over which bill was being discussed.
"As you know, in the Emergency Session for the appropriation for Super Typhoon Bavi response funds, a bill was handed out but I can't recall if there was a motion to accept that bill, which we were told was the right one," Barnett said.
Bill 266-38 (COR) is an act making appropriations for all executive, legislative and judicial branches for fiscal year 2027.
The bill was correctly loaded onto the session drive; however, on July 2, senators during the Emergency Session were provided a hard copy of "the wrong bill" that contained a different number of pages.
Speaker Frank Blas Jr. acknowledged the error, telling Barnett, "You're right. That wasn't the right one … initially distributed. That's why … they took it back, and they gave the right one that was supposed to have been distributed."
"The last page on the bill that you should have, that we're going to be deliberating, is page 194," he added.
When asked about the difference between the two bills, Duenas said, "the wrong bill was printed … the differences are that it was the wrong bill. And so that bill that was reprinted and put out was the correct bill that was moved."
Duenas later explained that the correct bill ending with page 194 is the severability clause chapter.
The explanations provided little reassurance for Barnett and other senators, including Will Parkinson, Sabrina Salas Matanane and Telo Taitague, who requested the session be recessed for similar reasons.
Parkinson called himself "a victim of the confusion," noting he and his staff had based their work on the hard copy bill provided. He requested "at least a day" to review the "new bill."
Duenas objected to Parkinson's motion, emphasizing that the correct bill is in the session drive.
"All members were notified. I believe Sen. Parkinson voted on the bill for typhoon relief, which means the accurate bill was actually on his desk; should have been," he said.
Taitague requested to "at least recess until 3 o'clock" to review the bill, citing storm-related power outages and limited or no internet access to review the correct bill online.
"If there's a happy medium here, at least to have internet here at the legislature," she said, asking to allow staff to work in the legislative hall.
Barnett, speaking to Taitague's motion, pointed to the same issues being experienced in the broader community.
"Our people aren't even able to watch these proceedings in the people's house as we conduct the people's business. Many of them were not even aware, because this session again failed to adhere to government notice," Barnett alleged, motioning for session to recess until Monday.
Salas Matanane echoed her colleagues' sentiments. "I agree with what's been said on the floor so far, regarding all of us that don't have power. I'm one of those people that don't have power."
She said she was not able to "thoroughly vet" the bill, stressing that she, like many others, had been preparing for the storm and then "riding out the storm."
Salas Matanane contended that deliberating on the bill without more review time would be premature, noting that based on a cursory review, Guam Memorial Hospital — which she has oversight — identified a couple of floor amendments that "need to be included."
Though Speaker Blas emphasized that internet access is not a necessity but rather a "convenience" of technology not used by "our forefathers," he allowed a brief recess for senators to reach a consensus on the length of the recess. Upon returning, Blas recessed the session until 10 a.m. Friday, July 10.