While final bill language is still not available, San Nicolas said there are talks that federal unemployment assistance could be extended to at least the first quarter of 2021.
However, a $1,200 direct assistance “may not be a part of it,” he said.
Congress members plan to attach the new pandemic relief package to an omnibus 2021 spending, a stop-gap measure to prevent a federal government shutdown and is expected to be voted on this week.
“But as of right now, the details are very, very few and far between but the assurances are that whenever those details finally emerge, will include territories in the final language,” according to San Nicolas, the guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Tumon Bay’s virtual fellowship.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s office on Tuesday also sent out copies of the governor’s letter to key House and Senate members, advocating for Guam’s inclusion in the coronavirus relief package.
The governor said the package would provide $180 billion for unemployment benefits, $288 billion for small businesses, $160 billion in aid to state and local governments, and a temporary liability shield for small businesses, among many other things.
“We are working personally with the National Governors Association and my friends Governor Ige of Hawaii and Governor Cuomo of New York to include Guam in any high-level discussions involving coronavirus relief efforts for the states and territories,” the governor said. “These benefits are a matter of economic life and death for Guam and millions of Americans across the country.”
Negotiations for another Covid-19 relief package fizzled out weeks before the 2020 general election but are now back in the forefront.
San Nicolas said the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of members of the House and Senate, are putting together the $908 billion relief package that might have initially excluded the territories but that, he said, was likely an “oversight” or unintentional, and delegates worked to rectify that.
The language may have originated from the Senate, which does not have representatives from the territories, he said.
New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and San Nicolas’ fellow Financial Services Committee member, gave assurances that territories will be included in the package, San Nicolas said.
Other House members, he said, told him that they won’t support a package that excludes the territories including Guam, the Northern Marianas, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“Long story short, there was a scare but we feel like we have gotten enough feedback to satisfy that scare is not something to be so worried about. With that, we’re looking at territorial inclusion in the $908 billion package,” he said.
San Nicolas is also confident that the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act will pass this week, and is hoping that it will have strong bipartisan support.
The NDAA, he said, includes some $600 million in funding for military realignment projects on Guam.
It also includes “a very critical amendment in the H-2B language,” extending the H-2B labor authorization on Guam to civilian projects.
“That amendment is intact. It’s in the current NDAA that will be voted on and that will happen tomorrow,” he said.
President Trump threatened to veto the NDAA unless the bill ends protections for internet companies that shield them from being held liable for material posted by their users.
“If we see very bipartisan vote tomorrow then we may see that door of veto open up. We hope this won’t happen,” he said.
The bill, he said, also has language for a pay raise for military personnel.
