WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU) questioned U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan K. Zinke on Friday about key priorities for Guam during an oversight hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee regarding the Trump Administration\u2019s\u00a0fiscal year 2019 budget proposal for the U.S. Department of the Interior.<\/p>\n
Bordallo underscored the need for greater federal support to help Guam address the inadequacy of\u00a0Compact impact\u00a0and GovGuam\u2019s current budget crisis caused by the\u00a0Republican tax law. <\/p>\n
Bordallo also sought Zinke\u2019s support on behalf of the Trump administration for increased voting rights for Americans living in the territories, as well as for her\u00a0LWCF Parity for Territories and DC Act.<\/p>\n
In response to Bordallo\u2019s questions, Zinke committed to working with her to reconsider the administration\u2019s proposed cuts to discretionary\u00a0Compact impact grants, and considering supporting the\u00a0LWCF Parity for Territories and DC Act, which would provide Guam with a state-equivalent share in\u00a0annual grants\u00a0from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zinke also committed to raising with President Trump his administration\u2019s official position on extending full voting rights to residents of the five U.S. territories, which would require a constitutional amendment. <\/p>\n
He will also organize an official visit by Trump to this region to meet with the governors of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.<\/p>\n
Bordallo continues working to prevent the\u00a0Trump administration\u2019s proposed budget cuts\u00a0to federal programs important to Guam, as Congress considers the president\u2019s budget proposal.<\/p>\n
The Guam delegate also continues working to advance legislation that increases federal assistance to Guam like her\u00a0Compact Impact Relief Act\u00a0(H.R.4761), in light of GovGuam\u2019s budgetary shortfall due to the\u00a0Republic tax law\u00a0signed by Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am encouraged by the commitments Secretary Zinke made [Friday], including that Guam\u2019s priorities will be addressed by this administration. The President\u2019s budget cuts to critical programs on which Guam and the other territories rely are unacceptable, and I am committed to working with my colleagues to protect them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a career Navy SEAL, Secretary Zinke is no stranger to Guam. I again invited him to visit our island. I hope that Secretary Zinke will come to Guam to hear from local leaders and see our challenges firsthand, as part of any official state visit by President Trump to our region,\u201d\u00a0said Bordallo. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU) questioned U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan K. Zinke…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,51,15255,17706],"class_list":["post-272303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-guam","tag-president-trump","tag-secretary-zinke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}