Last year, the Guam Legislature passed a law giving at least $4 million a year to the Guam Cancer Trust Fund, which supports nonprofit groups that provide services to patients and families.
But the trust has received only $48,000 each month this fiscal year, far short of $333,000 monthly drawdown that would be 1/12 of the annual budget, according to trust Chair Yvette C. Paulino.
Sen. Telo Taitague introduced Bill 246-38 to make sure the trust gets money on time.
“When funding arrives late, grant cycles are delayed,” she said. “Cancer does not wait for paperwork. Families should not have to wait for support.”
The delays happen because the Bureau of Budget and Management Research releases funds based on revenue availability, rather than program needs. Often, that means funding arrives late in the fiscal year.
The bill, which received support from cancer nonprofits, adds the Cancer Trust to a list of agencies that are exempt from the allotment control process. The trust would be able to draw down money when it is needed.
Former Sen. James Espaldon is on the board of the Ayuda Foundation, which operates the Wings for Life program that provides travel help for cancer patients needing off-island care.
He described the bill as a “kind of a no-brainer.”
Espaldon read from a page in a book of patients who have been helped by the group. They had bone cancer, lymphoma, Lynch syndrome, breast cancer, oral-phalangeal cancer, uterine cancer, and “the list goes on,” he said.
“When you have patients who come, who are medically referred, who really need to get off island and there's no funding to help them do that, that hurts. It hurts the patients, it hurts the family, and it actually works against the cancer, because then what we see is we see metastasis,” he said.
