Cruz offers feds to offset owed money

by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz wants the federal government to offset money owed to Guam with the money the territory owes the federal government. In a letter to Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo and Interior Undersecretary Tony Babauta, the vice speaker suggests an offset for the $307,000 the local government pays to the Department of Justice every month for the 22 high-risk inmates from Guam to be incarcerated at Bureau of Prison facilities in the U.S. mainland.

The request comes as DepCor received $3.5 million from the Interior for the incarceration of migrants from the Freely Associated States. Cruz has asked DOI to allow the government to offset the remaining $3.5 million in lieu of the $307,000 a month payments.

The Democrat lawmaker noted that GovGuam "cannot continue to subsidize a federal entity that passes off its increasing burden to us."