Guam State Historic Preservation Office facing federal cuts

Billions of dollars in military construction have turned Guam into a dig site for history. But the government office that decides what happens to every artifact and ancestral remain discovered is now bracing for a big budget cut.  At Monday’s oversight hearing, lawmakers got sobering news. The Guam State Historic Preservation Office—charged with preserving the island’s past—will lose about a third of its funding in the coming fiscal year.

State historic preservation officer Patrick Lujan said, "Currently we get $848,000 from local which is about 64% this is pretty much the highest with $484,000 coming up with the trump administration...they pretty much zeroed us out. I know for a national standpoint they are trying feverishly to keep that going so there is potential of that being brought forth again."

This year, the SHPO received nearly a half-million dollars from the National Historic Preservation Act—its largest federal allotment ever. But those dollars are gone under what Lujan called the “Big Bad Bill,” forcing the office to dip into past lapsed funds just to cover salaries.

Beyond money, an audit revealed other issues: SHPO staff overstepping their authority, including one official who required a developer to build a restroom and parking lot as part of a permit. Lujan told senators it was a one-off mistake tied to a former employee.

"The concerns regarding rules and regulations and the laws," he explained. "The first one recommendation operations not inline with an enabling statute. we absolutely agree with this recommendation. There's many conflicting laws within our local statutes where its placed, removing the office out of DPR, I continue to footstomp on that and I think across the board there is a support...I think that is a low-hanging fruit where we can avoid conflicts such as the permitting process. When we were really bleeding for help."

Still, with just a handful of staff, the office processes around 900 compliance applications each year, overseeing everything from ancestral reburials to artifact discoveries.

For now, the SHPO survives on past funding. But unless Washington restores federal support, Guam’s historic watchdog could face an uncertain future.