With limited power, Guam delegate faces daunting obstacles on Marines transfer

Madeleine Bordallo (D) faces a Herculean task. The lone Guam delegate must convince Congress that Guam — a West Pacific island halfway around the world — is worth billions of dollars in investments to support one of the most ambitious military buildups in decades.

As Guam’s most visible lobbyist, Bordallo is seeking to make her voice heard amid an intense election year consumed by fears of a failing economy, a housing crisis and the war in Iraq. In 2009, she and her supporters would have to grab the attention of a new White House navigating through its first year.

{mosads}Over the coming months, Bordallo will need to build strong alliances on the Hill, at federal agencies and in Guam to help facilitate the move of 8,000 Marines and about 9,000 of their family members from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam. The troop shift is supposed to be completed by 2014 and carries a price tag of at least $14 billion.

This year and next are crucial for Bordallo and her supporters to cement the commitment, not only from the Pentagon and the federal agencies but from the House and the Senate, that money will be available to carry out the buildup.

Bordallo admits that many of her colleagues know close to nothing about Guam, and those who traveled there were astonished at how far the island is from the continental United States. Guam, which is about three times the size of Washington, D.C., is about 3,700 miles west of Hawaii; a direct flight from the nation’s capital takes about 17 hours.

Guam finds itself in a difficult place. The island’s officials view this a vital chance to claim strategic importance in the Pacific, but also to overhaul the island’s infrastructure, healthcare and education system — a much-needed facelift that Bordallo admits Guam may never receive without the move.

Without securing a firm political and financial commitment for the Marine Corps base, Guam risks losing a rare opportunity to attract an influx of federal dollars.

Some warn that the desire to house the Marines and their families could become a double-edged sword.

“Be careful what you wish for,” said Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Bordallo’s strong ally on the Armed Services Committee. “Guam will become one giant base. Guam is a tiny, little place.” The island is already home to an Air Force and Navy base. Military bases occupy one-third of its land.

Bordallo, a 74-year-old widow, is facing an uphill battle in the Senate, where Guam has no representation and lawmakers with parochial interests are not going to embrace sending billions of dollars to the small island, according to several congressional sources. None of the military committees in the Senate or the House has yet looked into the decision to transfer the Marines to Guam.

The military construction necessary to support the buildup is estimated to cost about $10.27 billion, but many say that is an optimistic estimate because military construction costs have ballooned.

Out of that cost, Japan said it would pay $6 billion while the U.S. government will shoulder the rest.

But questions and concerns surround the Japanese funding commitment.

Another politically challenging issue between the countries is that the Marines will be starting the move under the cloud of several rape allegations, one of the main reasons for why Japan wants them out of Okinawa, the United States’ most important military asset in East Asia.

On top of the military construction costs, Guam will need at least another $3 billion to $4 billion for infrastructure and environmental, labor, health and human services, as well as socioeconomic requirements.

“The concern of the people of Guam is that all this buildup will take place within the fences of the military bases,” said Bordallo.

The third-term delegate added, however, that she received assurance from the Pentagon that that is not the case. “This would benefit the entire island, especially when it comes to infrastructure,” she said.

The island will need to see the expansion of roads, utilities and public housing as well as an overhaul in its medical care and public school system. Most importantly, Guam’s commercial port will need to be significantly expanded. The island’s resident population is projected to jump 25 percent by 2014.

With little political power, Bordallo is hoping to overcome seemingly daunting obstacles inside and outside Congress.

Yet the tenacious lawmaker has already laid some significant groundwork in the House, where she is known as a relentless supporter of Guam who is constantly urging her colleagues to travel to the island.

Bordallo led a congressional delegation to Guam at the beginning of the year — a rare bipartisan group including House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Reps. Kay Granger (R-Texas), Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).

Over the past year, Bordallo — a Minnesotan who relocated to Guam at the age of 14 — has already gained some heavyweight supporters, from Hoyer to Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on which she serves.

“Everybody on the committee will look out for her,” said Abercrombie, adding that he could only hope that Hawaii Sens. Daniel Inouye (D) and Daniel Akaka (D) would act as her surrogates in the Senate. At this point it is unclear whether the two senators will champion the issue, though Bordallo considers Inouye her mentor on Capitol Hill.

Some lawmakers interviewed for this article admitted they knew little to nothing about Guam. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), a senior member of the Armed Services panel, said he would not have paid attention to Guam had he not been on a military committee.

“The average member would not know much,” Taylor said. “If I hadn’t been a member of the Armed Services panel, it’s a pretty safe bet I would have not gone to Guam.”

Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.) echoed Taylor. “I know where it is located, I know what it used to be, but I don’t know what it is now,” he said.

No matter how little members know about Guam, the implications of the move will command their attention, said Abercrombie.

“When the reality sets in of what is proposed here, the amount of money and the human impact, that will grab people’s attention,” he said.

Abercrombie and Bordallo are poised to introduce legislation that will seek to ensure that the troop shuffle and the money — in particular the Japanese funding — receive the proper oversight.

A move of such amplitude will be done in very short time. The heavy lifting and much of the necessary funding would have to be programmed into the Pentagon’s as well as other federal agencies’ budgets in 2010.

Bordallo is not alone in her fight. Pentagon and Navy officials are also pressing their case for the Guam move and are looking to secure funding before the end of President Bush’s second term. The secretary of the Interior also recently awarded $5 million in grants for Guam.

The buildup cannot happen without a so-called “master plan” from the Defense Department and a crucial environmental impact study. A draft of the plan is expected to be finished in March.

Ultimately, the environmental study, slated for completion by the end of 2009, will drive the blueprint for the buildup, said retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. David Bice, the executive director of the Joint Guam Program Office (JGPO). It will assess how the relocation affects everything from noise levels to the water to the social and economic implications.

Guam falls under the purview of the Office of Insular Affairs at the Department of the Interior. An interagency task force is currently in place to see what the federal government needs to do to support Guam and make the move successful.