In the News

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, praised the election of Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva as president of Brazil on Sunday, hailing the victory over authoritarian rival Jair Bolsonaro as a win for the environment. “Lula’s win is a victory for global climate action,” said Schatz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an outspoken advocate for action on climate change. “The importance of the Amazon as a carbon sink cannot be overstated and its...

Hawaiʻi will receive nearly $5 million from the Environmental Protection Agency as part of a nearly $95 million EPA Clean School Bus program rebate competition from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The grants were sent to 29 school districts in Hawaiʻi, American Samoa, Arizona, California and Nevada. Hawaiʻi will use its share to buy 25 buses for the state Department of Education — 20 of which will be zero emission electric buses. The funding will also...

The Department of the Interior announced Tuesday it will require a process of formal consultation with the Native Hawaiian community on any actions it proposes that have a substantial direct effect on the community. The effort, described in a set of proposed policies and procedures, is a first for the federal agency and puts Native Hawaiians on par with Indian tribes without requiring the community to be a formal tribe. “New policies and procedures, subject to formal consultation, will...

Sen. Brian Schatz was championing telehealth before the Covid-19 pandemic made it commonplace. As this Congress winds down, the Hawaii Democrat is pressing colleagues to take up legislation to extend the Health and Human Services Department’s pandemic rules that allow Medicare beneficiaries to more easily have virtual appointments with their doctors. His CONNECT for Health Act to bolster telehealth access has the backing of more than 60 senators, but it’s up...

United States Sen. Brian Schatz announced Wednesday that seven Hawaii organizations will receive a total of $1 million in funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior to further their work in preserving and sharing Native Hawaiian culture with visitors. “Everyone who visits Hawaii should understand and appreciate Native Hawaiian culture, and this funding will help give local organizations the resources they need to preserve and share these important traditions,” Schatz, chairman...

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) announced on Friday, Oct. 7, that Hawai‘i will receive $1,417,688 in new federal funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support school meal programs. The money will help schools provide students with nutritious meals, supporting families that face food insecurity and addressing food shortages amid supply chain challenges. “Kids throughout Hawai‘i rely on school meals so that they can stay healthy and succeed in school,”...

With the school year in full swing, Kaua‘i public schools are getting some additional support from the federal government. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) announced Thursday that Kaua‘i schools would receive $2.4 million to support programs aimed at educating students in low-income communities. These funds will go toward new technology, teacher professional development, additional educators, and other academic programs. In total, Hawai‘i schools will receive $58.2...

The Federal Transit Administration has approved the Honolulu rail project’s recovery plan and will release $125 million of the $744 million it has withheld for years, city officials announced on Friday.  A second release of $250 million is contingent on the successful award of a contract for the city center guideway and stations, the FTA told HART CEO Lori Kahikina in a letter. That contract is expected to be awarded in 2024.  The decision came more than three months after the...

Hawaii’s public schools will soon be getting more than $58 million in federal funding, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said Thursday. The money is aimed at helping improve education for students in low-income communities, going toward new technology, teacher professional development, additional educators and more. “These new funds will be used to hire more teachers, expand academic programs, and help more students get a quality education,” Schatz said, in a statement. The money will be...

U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz, both D-Hawaii, joined four Senate colleagues Friday in urging the Department of Defense to allow people with human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis B virus to enlist and serve in the military as long as their conditions are well managed. “We are pleased to learn that (the U.S. Department of Justice) will no longer defend the constitutionality of regulations barring the deployment and commissioning of service members with HIV who are currently...

The U.S. Department of Defense has sped up its timeline for draining the Navy’s underground Red Hill fuel tanks by about five months and now expects that the work can be completed by July 2024. The projection is part of the military’s supplemental defueling plan submitted to the Hawaii Department of Health on Wednesday, which also discloses for the first time that there are 1 million gallons of fuel sitting in its Red Hill pipelines that it plans to remove next month. The...

The Hawaii Department of Health is set to receive more than $1 million for measures related to preventative care and community health, congressional officials announced Wednesday. The new federal funding comes from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant. The funding will be used for emerging health issues, addressing preventable risk factors, and eliminating health disparities, according to officials. Programs funded...

When the largest climate bill in U.S. history passed the Senate this month, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) choked back tears. “This is a planetary emergency, and this is the first time the federal government has taken action that is worthy of the moment,” he told reporters at the time. “Now I can look my kids in the eye and say we’re really doing something about climate.” For Schatz, one of Congress’s most vocal climate hawks, the moment marked the...

State and county transportation agencies will receive more than $55 million in federal money to buy clean energy buses and improve bus facilities. It’s part of $1.66 billion invested nationwide in bus fleets and facilities. The funds come from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed last year. “This new federal funding will make it easier for people to get to where they need to go while making our roads cleaner and quieter,” Sen. Brian Schatz,...

The climate package that passed the Senate over the weekend was decades in the making. From the collapse of the Clinton administration’s energy tax proposal in 1994 to the Senate’s rejection of the Kyoto Protocol 25 years ago, lawmakers have failed time and again to take broad action on climate change. Top of mind for some Senate Democrats is the Waxman-Markey carbon cap-and-trade bill, which cleared the House but fell apart in the Senate and divided the party ahead of a disastrous...

For decades, it has been virtually impossible to pass major climate legislation through the Senate. That finally changed on Sunday, when Senate Democrats passed their ambitious climate and tax package, a crucial step in a grueling journey to deliver the largest climate investment in U.S. history. The 755-page piece of legislation, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, cleared the chamber by a vote of 51-50 after nearly 20 hours of debate on the Senate floor, with Vice President...

Kauai and Maui will soon see a total of nearly $50 million in federal grant funding for infrastructure improvements, congressional officials announced Monday. The funding — which comes from the United States Department of Transportation — was awarded through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability & Equity, or RAISE, grant program. Maui will receive $25 million to help construct the Waiale Road Extension, which extends Waiale Road from East Waiko Road...

The United States Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday, Aug. 7. According to the U.S. Senate, this is the largest climate action ever taken by the United States. Sen. Schatz said “By investing in clean energy, clean transportation, and climate-smart manufacturing, we’ll cut emissions 40 percent by the end of the decade.” Schatz continued, “And we’re going to pay for it all by making billion-dollar corporations finally...

Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey still remembers the raw anger he felt after the 2009 climate bill bearing his name failed to advance in a Democrat-controlled Senate. "I was full of rage that the climate crisis was not going to be addressed," he told CNN of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. "I just resolved that I was going to stay in the fight."   In a 50-50 Senate and more than a decade later, Markey and the rest of his Democratic colleagues voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act...

Senate Democrats delivered a dramatic win for President Joe Biden’s effort to fight climate change on Sunday, passing a bill that will devote hundreds of billions of dollars to clean energy sources and speed the U.S. transition away from fossil fuels. The Inflation Reduction Act, which had appeared to be dead just weeks ago and now heads to the House of Representatives, would accelerate U.S. emission cuts and put the country on a path to reduce greenhouse gases by 40 percent below...