Guam Delegate Michael San Nicolas plans to introduce a legislative fix to resolve the war claims’ law lacking appropriations language.
San Nicolas said in a Facebook Live video message he would try to introduce the war claims legislative fix by the end of last week, however, his office informed KUAM News that didn’t happen.
As first reported on KUAM News, former Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo and her staff were informed in mid-2018 that the Treasury Department’s interpretation of the law meant no war claims checks would be issued until appropriations language was introduced and passed.
“The bill will be introduced this afternoon when the House goes back into session," San Nicolas’ Legal Counsel Sahara Defensor said in an email. "Unfortunately, due to the small window of time that rules allowed for bill introduction on Friday, we were unable to introduce it on Friday as we waited for the appropriations committee counsel to complete a legal review of the draft.”
“As you can imagine, we’d like to ensure that we get this completely right the first time around as not to further delay the process," Defensor said. "This requires more than just double-checking the language. We have been in communication with U.S. Treasury counsel, House leg counsel, and House Appropriations counsel.”
KUAM News searched the Congressional Record, however, no record of San Nicolas introducing any legislation addressing war claims was found.
Bordallo’s former Chief of Staff Adam Carbullido had said in a previous interview with KUAM that the Treasury Department had also provided Bordallo’s office with corrective legislative language, but efforts to introduce a fix were unsuccessful as Bordallo’s term drew to a close.
Carbullido met with San Nicolas after the General Election but did not inform San Nicolas or his staffers about the status of war claims.
"Looking back that is something that I would have done," Carbullido said.
As of 12:45 p.m. this afternoon, there were no posts on Facebook, San Nicolas' preferred platform of communication, regarding an introduction of a bill to Congress.
