The Leon Guerrero administration is moving ahead with its plans after saying they’ve met the deadline to obligate more than $100 million in American Rescue Plan funding. Over the past week, there’s been public pressure to recall the governor as the deadline to obligate the funds loomed. The governor is adamant a bulk of the money will go toward building the new hospital in Mangilao.

"I am very excited about health care. I am very excited about the hospital. I’ve been talking with the speaker and the vice speaker and they’ve said the decision has been made to build it in Mangilao and they are going to move forward in support of our construction of the hospital," detailed Governor Lou Leon Guerrero after attending the inauguration ceremony for the 38th Guam Legislature. The maga’haga says there’s no longer a question of whether guam will lose the millions in ARP funding.

She added, "We have all now totally obligated all of ARP." Asked if we're losing the money, she replied, "No. We met the deadline. Actually, we met it before the deadline. We’ve worked very closely with all of our agencies, individuals and organizations that have had ARP and whatever we move forward, we move forward for the hospital also."

Leading up to the deadline, Attorney General Doug Moylan suggested the governor should be recalled if we lost the funding. The AG is suing Adelup and the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority for allegedly violating the law when acquiring Mangilao lands for her new hospital. The administration contends the AG should be recalled arguing he is trying to prevent the governor from using the funds.

Additionally, Dr. Thomas Shieh, who supports a hospital at Ypao Point in Tamuning, has called on the community to rise up stating when a recall petition circulates – he encourages people to sign it.  

But the governor says she has already received assurances from the new republicans in the legislature that they would support her plans detailing how the federal funds will be spent. "What that is going to be used for is to lay down the preparatory work for the construction," Lein Guerrero explained. "We will go out for big for and A&E. We will go out for bid for probably a project manager and it’s looking really good for the people of Guam."

"It’s obligated with contracts, assignments, tasks and so forth. That’s the federal requirement. It’s not just I am allocating it to you. I am allocating it to you for the hospital, I am allocating it to you for infrastructure, I am allocating it to you to bring in water, power and utilities."

The governor adding agreements have been made with the Guam Economic Development Authority and other agencies, saying it falls in line with the requirements of the monies obligated.