HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Speaker Therese Terlaje says her team is “working hard” to complete a committee report on Bill 184-37, the measure that would facilitate the sale or lease of property for the construction of a new public hospital and medical complex, so that the measure can be considered for session in January.
Bill 184 eyes property belonging to the Guam Ancestral Lands Commission in the Barrigada/Mangilao area for the medical complex project. The measure already went through several public hearings last year.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero wrote to Terlaje on Jan. 5 regarding the committee report for the measure.
“I am writing to you to follow up on your commitment to me during our verbal conversation in December 2023 that you will file the committee report … for consideration during the upcoming January legislative session,” Leon Guerrero wrote.
“Bill 184-37 will provide our people with a medical complex that will encompass a comprehensive response to our people’s current and future health care needs,” the governor added.
Terlaje responded the same day with the message that her team was working to get the committee report drafted.
Bill 184 has a rival measure in Bill 185-37, which will ensure that any hospital built under the previously enacted Guam 21st Century Healthcare Center Act will be built in Tamuning.
Many doctors and health care officials have called for a new public hospital to remain in Tamuning, where the current Guam Memorial Hospital is located, citing proximity to existing medical infrastructure. They have also called for plans to be scaled down to just a new public hospital, although the governor’s plans for a full medical complex are supported by others in the medical community.
Like Bill 184, Bill 185 was heard publicly last year and is also awaiting a committee report.
The Legislature’s Committee on Rules, which decides session agendas, is slated to meet Thursday.
Therese Terlaje
Lou Leon Guerrer
