In the News

Sen. Brian Schatz has arrived in Scotland for the United Nations climate conference, representing the United States and Hawaii, which he says has become a climate change leader. The conference, known as COP26, is considered the most important climate meeting since Paris in 2015 and will end on Nov. 12. Schatz, who arrived on Friday, said that in the past Hawaii spoke of being a climate change leader as an aspiration. But with the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative’s commitment to shift to...

Our phones play a major role in our lives. They keep us in touch with friends and family, connect us to the happenings of the world while on the go, and are oftentimes necessary for our jobs. For survivors of domestic abuse, however, phones also represent something else — a terrifying way to be monitored, stalked or controlled. One in three women and one in four men in the United States will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, and the frequency of these terrible acts has increased...

Hawaii will receive $3.1 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan to help detect and prevent potential COVID-19 outbreaks among people experiencing homelessness and prison populations, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said Friday. “As Hawaii experiences a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant, we can’t leave vulnerable communities behind in our efforts to stop the spread of this virus,” Schatz, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a news...

On Friday’s 100th anniversary of the signing into law of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act by President Warren G. Harding, the “groundbreaking legacy” of Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana‘ole — champion of the law intended to provide homes for Native Hawaiians — was celebrated. “Whether it’s improving Native Hawaiian housing, health care or education, Prince Kuhio’s work, his legacy of justice for Native Hawaiians, lives on. It’s alive in...

When Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz took the reins of the Indian Affairs Committee in February, he found out that its staffers were making less money than any other Senate committee. The realization underscored how little clout the Indian Affairs Committee had in the Senate and the challenge of getting Congress to prioritize Indigenous issues. Schatz raised the salaries and hired more staff. But his ambitions are a lot bigger. “The way I look at the work we’re doing is to try to understand...

Congress appears poised to let millions of Medicare recipients continue to video chat with their doctors after the pandemic is over. A set of telemedicine policies the Trump administration adopted during lockdowns is emerging as an unexpected bipartisan rallying point as lawmakers begin to weigh life after Covid-19. The coverage policies are due to lapse once the health emergency ends, which could limit telehealth payments to rural providers and doctors with existing relationships with...

Hawaii U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz on Thursday reintroduced legislation that would accelerate the federal Bureau of Prisons’ approval process for compassionate release during a public health emergency. Schatz’s Emergency GRACE Act also would provide $50 million for state prison systems to increase their facilities’ testing for the novel coronavirus, plus the use of compassionate release and elderly or medical parole. “People who are eligible for compassionate release are the...

With student loans spiraling upward, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz is sponsoring the Debt-Free College Act, which aims to ensure low-income students can attend public colleges without going into debt. “There’s something wrong with a society that says it values higher education but then punishes you for pursuing it,” Schatz said in an interview. Student debt in the United States soared to $1.7 trillion last year, more than three times what it was in 2006, according to the Federal...

WASHINGTON — Native communities across the country are facing the brunt of climate change, whether it’s drought in the West or coral bleaching off the coast of Hawaii. That’s why Hawaii U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, Democratic chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, wanted to hear from Indigenous leaders themselves about the challenges they face as the planet warms and what the federal government can do to help them adapt. During a hearing Wednesday Schatz said that he intends to...

Hawai‘i will receive at least $1.7 billion as part of the $900 billion COVID-19 relief package approved by Congress on December 27. The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) will manage $32.4 million of that money, including $30 million for broadband-related activities such as telehealth, tele-education, mapping and infrastructure. It will also oversee disbursements of an additional $2.4 million to help qualified applicants pay for rent, utilities, security deposits and other...

Hawaii’s senior U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz can appreciate the benefits of being on the winning side. It may be a microscopic majority with Vice President Kamala Harris available to break ties in favor of the Democrats, but it counts that good things are going to faithful up-and-comers like Schatz. In the last two months, the 48-year-old Makiki Democrat has become chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, and the chairman...

Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz is back home stumping for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package while at the same time encouraging island residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Schatz appeared on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii program Wednesday to discuss what money might be headed Hawaii’s way should Democrats succeed in passing Biden’s ambitious spending plan that Republicans largely oppose. One of the highlights of...

WASHINGTON — Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz’s office announced Monday that he will be the head of an appropriations subcommittee focused on transportation, housing and urban development. The news highlights what it means for the Aloha State when Democrats are in power in Washington. Schatz will now have even more influence over how federal dollars are spent when it comes to addressing homelessness and public transit, both of which are major issues in the islands. “We need to rethink...

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has mobilized a team of health care professionals to help contain a COVID-19 outbreak at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz earlier this week made an urgent request for assistance from the VA as more cases and deaths were reported at the nursing home. The first coronavirus-related death at the home was recorded Aug. 29, and an eighth resident died on Monday, while the majority of the home’s 74...

For Hawaii, another day with more than 300 COVID-19 cases. So, what should we do, and where did we go wrong? First, our obsession with the “border” at the airport distracted us from building the public health awareness and infrastructure that will help us to get through this. We seemed, all of us, from the media to the politicians to the citizens who elected them, more interested in whether or not an individual scofflaw from the mainland was violating the quarantine than whether or...

Brian Schatz is no household name. But he's already positioning himself as an influential figure in the 2020 presidential race — someone who can unite the party around a shared agenda even if the primary inevitably turns ugly. Schatz, the senior senator from Hawaii, says he is eager to help Democrats avoid “that whole stupid, unproductive, toxic debate” of 2016, when voters were seemingly forced to choose between Bernie Sanders’ bold-but-vague proposals and Hillary...

A college education typically is out of reach for people who are in prison, and even formerly incarcerated students often face questions about their past in the admissions process. Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, wants to remove those restrictions for students who have been involved with the criminal justice system. He is spearheading bills that would restore Pell Grants for incarcerated students and encourage colleges to drop admissions questions about applicants’ criminal...

August 22 — Democrats are ready to go on the health care offensive. And Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) may have a new plan for them to do it. In an interview with Vox, Schatz revealed that he’s preparing a new bill that could grant more Americans the opportunity to enroll in Medicaid by giving states the option to offer a "buy-in" to the government program on Obamacare's exchanges. His proposal would expand the public health insurance program from one that covers only low-income...

Legislation to expand Medicare reimbursement of telemedicine could be attached to an end-of-the-year bill such as a continuing resolution to fund the government, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz told supporters today. “I think we have an opportunity in the next three months to actually get something done in one of the must-pass vehicles,” said Schatz, speaking at a luncheon hosted by ACT — the App Association. Schatz has championed the CONNECT for Health Act (S. 2484), which...

Aug. 10 — Hillary Clinton is surging not only in national polls but also in key swing states—and that is good news for a bloc of Senate Democrats who hope to put climate change back on the front burner and fill a vacuum of leadership triggered by the departure of once-towering Senate figures on the global warming issue. Control of the Senate was already up for grabs, given Republicans who now hold a 54–46 majority must defend 24 seats; Democrats are defending only 10. Clinton,...