“The Big Beautiful Budget Bill wasn’t so beautiful for anyone with a disability.”

That's how Attorney Daniel Somerfleck, Executive Director of the Guam Legal Services Corporation Disability Law Center, described recent federal budget talks during a Guam Developmental Disabilities Council meeting.

He later expanded on those concerns in an interview with KUAM.

“The president came out with his big beautiful budget bill, and inside of that bill was a cut,” said Somerfleck. “One program was cut 66%, a couple of programs were eliminated, and then that was after the president’s big beautiful budget bill.”

“And the senate refunded us, at least in theory, and then it went to the house, and the house put back our funding. Now, there’s no bill that any of this is in,” added Somerfleck.

That uncertainty, Somerfleck says, has been the most distressing and confusing part, making steps forward more difficult to map out.

“For lack of a better way of saying it, until they come out like the house just did or senate did--some written statement, we don't know that we're safe. Then, we go through the reconciliation process and who knows what's going to happen,” said Somerfleck.

“Right now, it’s unknown whether we’re going to be cut or not going to be cut, but we’ve been instructed by the feds, at least with one program, to budget at 33% of our current funding amount. So, we are cutting programs–I mean, there’s no other way to put this. At one point, it looked like we’d lose all of our funding for PAIR, which is protection and advocacy for individual rights. It’s one of our programs that’s more open to persons with disabilities and other programs. That was actually completely cut, but now we’re told we’re back into the funding loop at 2025 budgeting amounts. All this may sound somewhat confusing, because honestly, it’s been very confusing for me,” he added.

At its core, GLSC-DLC’s mission is to promote, educate, and advocate for equal rights and access to justice for underserved communities.

“We’re doing our public input session next Thursday, where we present our goals and objectives to the consumers–the community. Inside our goals and objectives, we put a clause in there that these goals are all dependent,” said Somerfleck. “On funding, and in some of them, we’ve eliminated goals where they told us we need to budget based on 33%. That’s basically what one of the federal agencies are telling us now.”

“You see some sections that I read it out because we don’t have funding for it. If I’m looking at a 33% cut, my first priority is abuse and neglect–making sure people with disabilities aren’t being abused and neglected, and then it goes down from there. So, there are priorities that we put in red–saying, we might not be able to do this,” he said.

Somerfleck adding Guam's delegate has been supportive amid the uncertainty.

And while he braces for any possible impact, he still encourages island residents with disabilities to continue to reach out if they are in need of services.

“Right now, we’re still here. Anyone with issues with regard to being treated poorly because they’re a person with a disability–don’t hesitate to contact us. Even if we get hit, we should still be around here in some capacity,” said Somerfleck.

As for the staff, the executive director says they’re kept in the loop, regularly updated as new information comes in.