GUAM – Secretary Leon Panetta is set this week to reveal a new, trimmed-down vision of the U.S. military that reflects how the Pentagon will do its part to reduce America's crippling deficit over the next decade.

GUAM – President Obama signed the annual U.S. defense policy bill into law on Saturday while on vacation in Hawaii. The new law caps defense authorizations at $662 billion for the year and officially puts 2012 Guam military buildup projects on hold.

GUAM – Since enactment by the House of Representatives on Dec. 14 and by the Senate on Dec. 15, the compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 is now on President Obama's desk for signature. 

GUAM – No matter how much Guam wanted the Pentagon to clarify the way forward for a planned multi-billion-dollar Marine Corps base that could prop up its own struggling economy, Congress simply lacked the political will to get much of the nation's business done at all this year.

GUAM – This week's action on Capitol Hill to delay funding for the Guam buildup portion of a blueprint to realign troops in Japan and Asia-Pacific marks the first serious sign of U.S. wavering on the plan, even if all Congress has really done yet is call the price tag of the buildup into question.

GUAM – The House-Senate conference on the annual Defense policy bill voted Monday night in Washington to freeze the military construction program that is preparing Guam to host thousands of Marines from Okinawa.