On Monday, Senator Sabrina Salas Matanane formally addressed her office’s draft document, the “Restructuring Initiative for Fiscal Leadership and efficiency, or R.I.F.L.E., after weeks of unease following its leak.

She says her intent was to refocus government spending on what has been called ‘The Big Four’: public safety, healthcare, education, and the economy.

“It was a draft plan. It was using a scalpel rather than a chainsaw,” said Sen. Matanane. 

The freshman senator argued the draft reflected the realities facing Guam today: A struggling tourism industry, the widespread need for school maintenance, a meth epidemic, and a hospital in crisis.

"I mean, it’s almost proven that we were right,” added Matanane. 

And she pushes back against the public’s criticism for R.I.F.L.E.’s targeting of cultural preservation programs.

“R.I.F.L.E. was not anti-CHamoru. It wasn’t targeting anybody’s specific oversight. It was looking at every single agency that exists as important, but focusing on what’s critical now. R.I.F.L.E. isn’t even in this budget. It was a concept and a draft that – for whatever reason – was leaked,” added Matanane. 

Senator Chris Barnett says he’s glad Salas Matanane addressed the draft directly, even agreeing to its prioritizing of funding for the Guam Memorial Hospital.

"Of all the things that were in there that were very concerning, one thing that I did see was this proposed budget for the Guam Memorial Hospital of $214M. That was the exciting part,” said Sen. Barnett. 

Still, he believes proposing the elimination of funding for cultural preservation sent the wrong message.

“The zeroing out of every single agency that perpetuates and promotes our CHamoru culture and language was – for me – very concerning. I can absolutely understand why people would think that this draft document was ‘anti-CHamoru', but that was the bad part of it,” added Barnett. 

During the session, GMH Chief Financial Officer Yuka Hechanova noted that amendments being discussed could raise the hospital’s appropriation to that $214 million level, matching R.I.F.L.E.’s draft proposal.

So though the draft is not part of the Fiscal Year 26 budget, its leak has sparked a wider conversation: Should funding the cultural programming that defines Guam's identity be sidelined or can room be made for it on the session floor?

You can view the full pdf: here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_GrGzHlFJgerTkelSkHbfTriLbxeNziB/view?usp=sharing