Guam’s former delegate to Congress, Madeleine Bordallo, said H.R 1365 will most likely not pass its upcoming mark-up hearing.
Introduced by Congressman Michael San Nicolas, the bill seeks to make technical corrections to the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act so that funds can finally be disbursed to Guam war claimants.
It is scheduled for a markup hearing in the House natural resources committee next week.
Bordallo, in an interview with the Patti Arroyo show at K57, said she has talked with the House natural resources committee chairman about the legislation.
According to Bordallo, the chairman confided to her that the San Nicolas bill will likely not survive its mark-up hearing.
“I learned that the bill doesn’t have much of a chance. He said there’s just a lot of flaws with the legislation,” Bordallo said.
In response, Congressman Michael San Nicolas said H.R. 1365 was drafted in close consultation with the natural resources committee staff and the U.S. Treasury legal counsel.
“This is their recommended language,” San Nicolas said in a statement sent to K-57.
San Nicolas has been at loggerheads with the Leon Guerrero-Tenorio administration over the approach to getting war claims.
San Nicolas said his office was not consulted in Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s decision to use local funding for war claims.
He also said that any work now to change the federal war claims structure that has already been adopted will set the clock back for everyone.
During the interview with Patti Arroyo, Bordallo gave hints of discord between San Nicolas and the current administration, including a snub of the governor and her delegation when she was in Washington D.C.
“We actually went to the congressman’s office and we waited for up to 25 minutes but he didn’t meet with us. That was a breach of protocol of the highest order,” Bordallo said.
She added: “That’s terrible. That’s unheard of. When I was in Congress, I would clear out everything when the governor was in town.”
Bordallo also said that she’s always careful with her words and action because people might misinterpret them as stepping over the congressman’s turf.
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