Guam legislature, governor clash over childcare funding; Senator says executive bill filled with inconsistencies

By Jayvee Vallejera

After months of delayed payments, Guam's childcare providers who care for 2,730 children under a federal funding program will have to wait a little longer after the legislature postponed action on a subsidy request due to confusion over the governor-drafted bill.

Chris Duenas

For now, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero may use an available $2.2 million to pay Guam’s childcare providers while the executive branch fixes the flawed language of Bill 1 (9-S), said Sen. Chris Duenas, chairman of the Committee on Finance and Government Operations.

Duenas' claim about technical errors in the bill provoked a sharp response from Adelup, igniting a blame exchange over the continued delay in childcare subsidy payment.

An Office of the Governor statement Tuesday said the Guam Legislature has the authority to amend the bill on the floor and a nearly weeklong recess is not necessary.

“The Republican majority can amend the bill, pass it, and send it to the governor’s desk,” the statement said. “Instead, the Republican budget chairman is attempting to shift blame to the administration for a delay that the legislature has the power to end immediately.”

Duenas countered that the governor's attempt to shift the blame on the legislature when the executive branch "submitted a deeply flawed proposal with moving target figures that change by the day.”

He said the governor-drafted bill is riddled with administrative errors that could tie up payments indefinitely.

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In a letter to Leon-Guerrero, Duenas said discrepancies between the language of Bill 1 (9-S) and actual operational needs came to light during a Committee of the Whole session he chaired on Tuesday.

That prompted the legislature to hold off acting on the bill in order to give the Office of the Governor, Office of Finance and Budget and other executive fiscal agencies time to make the technical amendments necessary to correct the bill and to come up with exact subsidy figures needed for funding.

“Precise language is needed so that this section of the bill achieves its intended objective of funding the childcare subsidy request seamlessly without administrative hindrances,” Duenas said in his letter.

Duenas said the amounts the executive branch is asking for under the bill are also problematic. The funding request appeared straightforward, he said, but the actual amounts being asked fluctuated.

“Clear and final guidance on the exact figure needed to satisfy outstanding subsidy obligations is essential,” he said.

The initial bill had asked for $11.4 million for child care subsidy payments. During Tuesday’s special session, Teresa Arriola, director of the Department of Public Health and Social Services, said their request had gone down to just $7.6 million after receiving their remaining Child Care and Development allotment over the Liberation Day weekend.

She said the department has already received the entire $22 million CCDF funding allotted for Guam and just needs $7.6 million more to tide them over until the end of the fiscal year in September.

'Bill 1 (9-S) also asks for up to $13.36 million for Guam’s Super Typhoon Bavi response and recovery and $17.65 million to bail out the Guam International Airport Authority. 

The Bureau of Budget and Management Research was also absent from Tuesday’s floor deliberations, compounding the confusion on the bill, Duenas said.

The legislature is scheduled to reconvene on Aug. 4.

Duenas said lawmakers can act quickly to pass the childcare portion of the bill once the technical amendments and final figures are locked in.

“We request that BBMR and executive leadership coordinate with the Committee on Finance and OFB as soon as possible so we may finalize the necessary amendments prior to reconvening,” he said.

In a statement, the Office of the Governor rapped Duenas for putting up one excuse after another for the Legislature’s inaction on Bill 1 (9-S).

It said Duenas ignores what senators were told repeatedly, under oath, that the correct amount needed to sustain childcare assistance is $7.6 million.

“The information is not missing. The number is not uncertain. It was provided directly and repeatedly by the agency responsible for administering the program,” the statement added.

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“The authority exists. The correct amount has been provided. The amendment can be made on the floor. Amend the bill. Pass it. Send it to the governor,” it added.

During the session, officials said the uncertainties over federal funding policy sparked questions about the sustainability of the Bureau of Child Care Services.

Bureau officials said Guam needed a total of $29 million to run the childcare program.

Of the required amount, $25 million covers payments for childcare providers, while the rest is for administrative costs. 

In fiscal 2026, the federal government provided $22 million through the Childcare Development Fund, leaving a shortfall of $7.6 million for the remainder of the fiscal year, according to Teresa Arriola, director of the Department of Public Health and Social Services, which runs the bureau.

The bureau asked the legislature for supplemental funding to tide it over until the end of the fiscal year.

The bureau typically gets $22 million in CCDF funds each year. In previous years, the bureau used unspent funds from other grants to supplement the shortfall. However, those grants have already expired, Arriola said, and their only active grant at this time is the current CCDF grant.

“There were a lot of things we had that we no longer have that were able to augment the CCDF fund. So, here we are today, and we need $7.6 million to carry us through September,” she added. 

Arriola blamed the delayed release of CCDF allotments and the unknown amounts they would receive each quarter for much of the program's uncertainty. “The way the allotments were coming in was very haphazardly compared to in the past where it was quarterly.”

She said the Trump administration’s “Defend the Spend” policy impacted the timing of the release of the funds.

“We're not getting our allotments quarterly to really see what we're getting. We need the local infusion to keep up with the current eligibility of families and children, which is about 2,700 kids in the program today,” she said. 

Sen. Therese Terlaje, who echoed concerns of childcare providers and parents about payments and the program's stability, asked the pointed question: “Do you have a potential plan for fiscal year 2027?”

“What are we going to do here? This is really a huge stability issue, because if we pass this bill today, it takes care of the remaining months of 2026 only,” she said, referring to Bill 1 (9-S).

Arriola clarified that they are asking for $7.6 million only—not $11.4 million. The differing numbers were not immediately clarified at the session. The bill remains pending.

When Terlaje suggested possibly operating the childcare program based only on the $22 million in CCDF funds that Guam could expect, Arriola cited a Mississippi study that projects a 20-percent loss in the number of children benefiting from the program. That’s about 591 children in Guam who will be cut from the program.

If BCCS were to continue running at the $29 million level, BCCS would have to ask the Legislature for a supplemental budget, said Patricia Mafnas of the Bureau of Social Services Administration. If not, BCCS would have to draw back and change its eligibility criteria. That means fewer children and families will benefit from subsidized child care.

“That's the two ranges. Either we get the money supported by the Legislature to maintain where we are now, or we have to draw back the eligibility criteria to live within our federal dollars,” Mafnas added.

Terlaje said she supports passing the supplemental bill, but “I think we need a plan as soon as possible. This cannot go on like this. There must be a plan, and it must be based on all the factors that we have in front of us.”

It’s not that BCCS didn’t prepare for the anticipated shortfalls. Arriola said. She said they have been rolling back some eligibility requirements that were put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Guam was flush with cash.

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