Vice Speaker Tony Ada has introduced his first three bills of the 38th Guam Legislature, aiming to strengthen protections for children, promote accountability in government, and preserve Guam's ecosystem.

Bill No. 33-38 (COR) expands the victimology of older children and allows the charges of 1st and 2nd-degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC) to apply to children who are 14 and 15 years old.

Criminal Sexual Conduct committed against a child who is 14 or 15, under Guam law, is usually charged as 3rd-degree CSC unless the crime includes violent acts or the perpetrator is related by blood or affinity. This legislation expands the victimology to include perpetrators who have a relationship with the victim such as a school or healthcare employee or are related to the victim by a dating relationship with a member of the victim’s family.

Bill No. 34-38 (COR) is a replacement that follows the Vice Speaker’s Bill No. 123-36 (COR), introduced in 2022, that will close a loophole in the drug testing protocols. The current law allows classified employees who resign from their jobs to be re-employed after 30 days.

Thus, employees with illegal drugs in their bodies who are told that they will be tested can resign and then be rehired 30 days later, after those substances have left their system. That bill was vetoed because of a floor amendment that required retesting after the employee was rehired which was determined to be unconstitutional. Bill 34 corrects this flaw by requiring drug testing before the employee is rehired.

Bill No. 35-38 (COR) follows legislation of similar US jurisdictions whose waters serve as a home for coral reefs. Hawaii, Key West in the Florida Keys, and the US Virgin Islands have all banned the importation of sunscreen products containing oxybenzone, octinoxate, and octocrylene.

These chemicals have been scientifically linked to the killing of coral and marine life that inhabit coral reefs. Bill 35 aims to impose a ban on skincare products that contain these chemicals. The bill will also empower the Guam Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Public Health and Social Services to adopt rules and regulations to limit or ban the imports of other skincare products determined to be hazardous to Guam’s marine ecosystem.

Ada said the legislation will promote accountability, environmental conservation, and justice for vulnerable members of the community.