Shrinking federal assistance leaves Guam on its own

From the Publisher's Desk By Mar-Vic Cagurangan

 In 2020, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero came under fire for saying her administration was "milking" concessions from the federal government in exchange for hosting the Covid-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt. “The best decision I ever made is allowing the USS Theodore Roosevelt to go to our hotels,” the governor said during a virtual meeting with Rotarians on Guam.

“They think we’re just the bomb. Really. The secretary of defense—I don’t know how many letters he wrote me thanking me. He’s going to give us excess land because of that. So, we’re milking that. We’re milking that very hard.”

The governor doesn’t forego any opportunity to try to “milk the feds.” During her meeting with Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth, she provided him with an inventory of Guam projects that she wanted the federal government to either subsidize or fully fund. She asked the Department of Defense to fund Guam’s hospital project, which is estimated to cost $600 million.

But “milking the feds” proved to be an unsustainable financial management strategy for Guam, considering that President Trump doesn’t have a propensity for generosity. The government of Guam relies on at least half a billion dollars in annual federal assistance, thus Trump’s radical federal spending cuts struck like a lightning bolt.

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Sweeping federal cuts sent several programs into limbo, including education, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and block grants for child care.

Just the same, the governor found it imperative to employ the same trick again, with caution added. In her state of the island address, she warned that federal cuts could jeopardize the territory’s role in national defense.

In Washington, D.C., Guam Del. James Moylan said his office received more than 400 requests for federal fund retention.

Local contingency plans—such as implementing austerity measures and finding alternative revenue sources to fill the federal funding gap—are largely absent from public discussions, indicating an overly optimistic expectation that the federal government will respond favorably. Have you met Trump?

Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office’s recent report indicated that military installations on Guam are facing exactly the same infrastructure challenges affecting the civilian community: housing shortages for military

personnel, school overcrowding, inadequate health care and limited consumer supply at the commissaries. These conditions will only get worse with the arrival of the Marines from Okinawa and the support team for the Guam missile defense system.

The military size on Guam is projected to double in 10 years—from 10,000 in 2024 to 20,000 in 2033. The burden of the looming population surge will be shouldered by both the military sector and the civilian community.

Before the end of his tour of duty on Guam, Rear Adm. Brent DeVore stressed the need for the military to be “open and transparent” with the civilian community about mutual challenges and to explore partnership opportunities.

“This is back to the One-Guam approach, so that we're not building solutions in separate silos,” said the former commander of Joint Region Marianas. “Certainly,

we could all use more money, but there is no more money to have. It's limited, and we've got to be as smart, resourceful, pragmatic and practical as we can in the use of limited and precious taxpayer money to be able to provide for defense.”

While we may expect—or even demand—that the federal government reciprocate for Guam's role in hosting military bases on island, we can’t entirely pin our hopes on federal largesse that may not come. For now, we may be on our own.

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