WASHINGTON, D.C. (Guam News Now) — After 43 long days, the federal government is finally back open for business.
President Trump signed a short-term funding plan late Wednesday night, ending the longest shutdown in U.S. history and reopening agencies that millions of Americans — including thousands in Guam — rely on every day.
From paused SNAP benefits and veteran services to travel disruptions and unpaid federal workers, Guam felt the shutdown’s shockwaves just like the rest of the United States and its territories.
“If we continue to put politics over our country, my constituents will continue to suffer,” said Congressman Jim Moylan, R-Guam, while speaking on the House floor before lawmakers voted on the funding package.
With the government now funded through January — and three full-year appropriations bills tucked into the continuing resolution, or CR — there is finally some breathing room.
“The government needed to get open,” Moylan told Guam News Now after the House passed the measure Wednesday night.
For residents in Guam, Moylan says reopening the government wasn’t just urgent — it was essential.
“Quite important, of course, we have over 3,000 federal employees, over 20,000 people on SNAP, WIC as well,” Moylan said. “We got here as soon as possible to make sure our measures are still included in that CR. We’ve got some good things for Guam.”
And those “good things,” Moylan says, go well beyond just back pay.
“Defense access roads, we also have measures in there for our public works and our customs authority, our fire department, our police department,” he said. “Good public safety things, public health as well. And also getting our money back from what we put in there to pay for the SNAP from our local government. So they get that refunded — and get our federal employees paid.”
For Guam, the end of the shutdown means stability — for families, for the island’s workforce, and for the critical federal programs that keep the territory moving.
