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Legislature moves to guarantee monthly allotment releases for Guam Cancer Trust Fund
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Summary
Lawmakers unanimously accepted a substitute to Bill 246‑38 to exempt the Guam Cancer Trust Fund from BBMR allotment‑release control so appropriated funds are disbursed monthly; sponsors said delays have forced nonprofits and patients to front costs and cited specific examples of late disbursements.
A substituted version of Bill 246‑38 was accepted on the floor and moved to the third‑reading file after senators described repeated operational harms from delayed allotment releases to the Guam Cancer Trust Fund.
The substitute adds a section exempting the trust fund from the Bureau of Budget and Management Research's allotment‑release control so the fund would receive its monthly allotments as scheduled. The sponsor said past delays had real consequences: "funds have sometimes been released sporadically or later in the fiscal year," and testified that in one year the trust fund did not receive any allotment from October until August of the following year. Floor speakers also recounted instances in which organizations were required to front costs while waiting months for reimbursements.
Floor debate emphasized patient impacts and nonprofit dependence on predictable cash flows. One senator said some patients pay near $20,000 for a single pill and called the measure "life or death," while another noted an appropriation of $4,000,000 had produced a partial release of only $48,000 to date. Supporters framed the substitute as building on Public Law 38‑62, which had stabilized the fund's minimum level of funding, while the current change stabilizes monthly release timing.
The substitute was accepted by unanimous/no‑objection voice action, and colleagues moved the bill to the third‑reading file. Senators asked that the bill preserve accountability for how nonprofit recipients use funds: floor remarks referenced an Office of Public Accountability report that in prior years a single nonprofit had received substantial shares of project costs and recommended stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
If enacted, the bill exempts the Guam Cancer Trust Fund (managed through the University of Guam per floor testimony) from standard allotment release controls so monthly allotments will be released even if projected collections to the Healthy Futures Fund vary; the substitute allows shortfalls to be drawn from unobligated excess revenue up to the statutory allocation (discussed at $4,000,000 per year in floor remarks).
