DPW warns: millions at risk

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - Lawmakers began voting this morning and when they did Bill 443 failed to get enough votes. As we reported Department of Public Works director Joanne Brown warned that millions of dollars in federal funding could be compromised because of a new law that took the agency's authority over routed roads and gave it to village mayors.

Bill 443 would have restored that authority back to DPW. "We'll have to wait and I'm sure Federal Highway will take appropriate action. They're aware of this issue but there are consequences to this. There are times for politics and back and forth bantering and positioning and all that stuff that come with the interesting dynamic of politics. But this issue is much bigger than that the consequences to people in our community, to the construction industry to the designing industry who gets millions of dollars a year to provide work, all the workers who receive funds, the suppliers who provide resources for these construction projects. There are tremendous implications," she said.

The vote on Bill 443 was 7-yes, 7-no and 1-excused absence. Also failing to secure enough votes for passage was Bill 404 related to the election of independent candidates.