If you can imagine that candidate Ginger Cruz won the local elections and she becomes Guam’s new representative in the House of Representatives, will she be able to continue her progressive agenda in January, especially if Republicans retain the majority?
How will it achieve its main objective of elevating Guam’s place in the federal system from the Department of the Interior to the White House if former President Donald Trump becomes president again in January? Will she also succeed in getting her Democratic Party, which may be in a minority, to assign her to the committees of her choice in the House of Representatives?
Ms. Cruz definitely wants the seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Rep. Moylan will vacate if she is the new delegate. As for the two other House committees to which non-voting representatives are usually assigned, namely the House Committee on Natural Resources and the House Committee on Armed Services, apparently Ms. Cruz already has her plans and is moving forward.
Still, I wonder if she will continue to argue that “it’s not enough to simply sit on these committees and do nothing”? She was, of course, referring to her recent criticism of Representative Moylan’s performance in Congress.
You will recall that she publicly criticized Mr. Moylan for his lack of attention as Guam’s representative in Washington DC during critical times to attend and participate in the various Congressional hearings and sessions.
Contrary to what some critics in the media have said about Representative Moylan’s first term as bland and boring, this needs to be clarified. For the record, Representative Moylan did very well in his job as the first delegate to these two House committees, with good results.
For example, this year, under his strong efforts and recommendations, Guam will receive $3.2 million from the federal government for our Guam veterans.
Guam will also receive approximately $140 million to improve our much-maligned public roads and keep our streets safe.
In addition, Guam will be able to build a new customs screening facility, which will inspect containers for illegal drugs, keeping our people safe.
And let’s not forget that Representative Moylan was very successful, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, in amending the National Defense Authorization Act for 2024 to exempt Guam from the congressional mandate of a visa cap for 33,000 H-2B workers for five years, until December 31, 2029. And for the record, he already plans to extend that exemption for another five years.
In that same NDAA, Representative Moylan was quite successful in his efforts to increase the Department of Defense budget for the Guam Missile Defense Project by $130 million. This also included his efforts in the $167 million repair and maintenance of the Guam Glass Breakwater Project at the Guam Naval Base.
Ms. Cruz can say all she wants that the military projects mentioned by Representative Moylan were not done by him, but were actually planned and initiated by the Department of Defense in Washington, DC. Even former Rep. Robert Underwood expressed his approval of Ms. Cruz in his speech. recent campaign endorsement for Ms. Cruz. Both Ms. Cruz and Mr. Underwood should be assured that such military projects and activities must first be approved and appropriated by the House of Representatives, in which Rep. Moylan is an active member.
Compared to other Guam Delegates, there is no denying that Delegate Moylan achieved and achieved more during his first term. In this regard, I must disagree with former Representative Underwood, who in his support of Ms. Cruz publicly stated that “it doesn’t matter who you know, but how you are known” in the congressional circle in Washington, DC to have any success. as a delegate.
To show you what I mean, just look at what Representative Moylan had accomplished and accomplished for the people of Guam. In his address to the 37th Guam Legislature on July 2 of this year, he reported on his many achievements and achievements during the 18 months of his first term. As many people have commented, it was an excellent report.
Moreover, compared to other Guam delegates, Mr. Moylan has an advantage. As a Republican, he was well placed in the Republican majority. He managed to build a very close relationship with the leaders of the House of Representatives: initially through Speaker Kevin McCarthy and then through Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Leader Tom Emmer.
With his staff working closely with other congressional staff, Representative Moylan was poised to secure a seat on the two House committees to which he was assigned. And it didn’t take so long for Speaker Johnson to see what Representative Moylan was capable of legislatively that he didn’t hesitate to assign him to chair some legislative hearings in the House of Representatives. I do not believe that any other non-voting Member has ever been given such an important task.
Recently, during a visit to the nation’s capital, members of the Guam Board of Realtors reported on KUAM that they had seen Representative Moylan working on the floor of the House of Representatives during a legislative hearing and confirmed that Representative Moylan had the job done expertly and professionally. Not only were they impressed, but his attitude made them proud. Well done!
Representative Moylan must have made quite an impression on the leadership of the House of Representatives that both Chairman Johnson and Majority Leader Scalise had publicly endorsed Representative Moylan for his re-election campaign. How is that not impressive? Even the non-voting delegate from American Samoa, Ms. Amata Radewagen, had publicly supported him.
So Mr. Underwood, it really is about who you know!