In the News

The climate and clean energy provisions in the surprise reconciliation package Democrats announced late Thursday are far smaller than the $555 billion in climate spending eyed in the initial “Build Back Better” plan that President Joe Biden unveiled last year. Still, at a whopping $369 billion, it would be the most significant investment the U.S. has ever made to confront fossil fuel-driven climate breakdown and its mounting impacts. “This will be, by far, the...

There are a few tweets that Sen. Brian Schatz wishes he could take back, but that’s the way it goes on social media. As one of the Senate’s more active Twitter users, the Hawaii Democrat says he uses the app to track breaking news, but also because “my communications director can’t tell me not to say things.” “Sorry Mike!” he once tweeted at spokesman Mike Inacay, feeding the joke that he gives his staff heartburn when he uses his personal...

Two airports in Hawaii will receive a combined $34 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve their runways and taxiways, it was announced Tuesday. Nearly $23 million will be used to rebuild about 7,755 feet of runway and taxiway pavement at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Oahu, while $11 million will be used to strengthen 4,796 feet of runways and taxiways and 9,661 square yards of apron paving at Molokai Airport, according to an announcement from...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending Maui almost $1.3 million to repair Awalau Road in Haiku, which was damaged last year by mudslides. The money will be used to repave and replace guardrails on Awalau Road, as well as create better drainage so that water can cross the road without damaging it again during future floods, according to a news release Friday from Sen. Brian Schatz. The road was initially damaged in March 2021, when a massive amount of rainfall flooded the...

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, sounded his support Wednesday for President Joe Biden’s decision to use his executive powers to combat climate change and its destructive effects in the United States. “We are experiencing the climate crisis in real time,” Schatz said in a statement released shortly after Biden’s Wednesday afternoon announcement. “Heatwaves and wildfires around the world are killing people, driving families from their homes, and breaking critical...

While digital equity activists have focused much attention in recent years to bridging the economic divide that prevents lower-income Americans from accessing the internet and availing themselves of the increasing number of online-only services essential for daily life, less attention has been paid to the digital divide that keeps people with disabilities from accessing these same services. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, led a group of 12 Senate colleagues in calling on the...

The Daniel K. Inouye International Airport will receive $10 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to upgrade its runways and improve its terminal lighting and draining systems, it was announced Thursday. The funding is part of the at least $2.8 billion Hawaii has started to receive from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden last November. “This new federal funding will support necessary upgrades at HNL, which will improve...

The YMCA provides free meals to keiki in need during the school year and throughout the summer, but they are having a problem with getting enough funding to provide for all the kids in need. Honolulu YMCA Youth Development Executive Director, Diane Tabangay said it is hard to get other organizations to help fund the meals because it is “a financial risk for them. Tabangay went on to explain, “and the other piece to it is having access to enough vendors that can provide...

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) took a tour Thursday of the YWCA of Hawaii Island Developmental Preschool in Hilo. During his visit, Schatz met with YWCA of Hawaii Island CEO Kathleen McGilvray and interacted with teachers and students. “It was a real shot in the arm to have Senator Schatz visit our Developmental Preschool campus in person (Thursday), on the heels of such great news about the funding he was able to secure for our program,” McGilvray said in a statement....

Hawaii’s congressional delegation reacted swiftly to today’s release of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, the nearly 50-year-old court precedent legalizing abortion. The delegation, all Democrats, decried the ruling and condemned the court’s conservative majority for restricting women’s rights. >> Sen. Brian Schatz: “The Republican-controlled Supreme Court has ripped away abortion rights from millions of American women....

U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chair Brian Schatz held a hearing Wednesday on the next steps following the U.S. Interior Department’s report on Indian boarding schools. The report released in May confirmed that forced assimilation of Indigenous children was U.S. policy at over 400 known federal schools dating back to 1819. This includes seven schools in Hawaiʻi: Hilo Boarding School, Industrial and Reformatory Schools, Industrial and Reformatory Schools for Girls,...

When the U.S. federal government began its Indian Boarding School Initiative in the mid-19th century, the goal was clear: to erase Indigenous cultures through a process of forced assimilation. Now, the head of the Department of the Interior hopes to address the generations-long fallout from those policies.On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland advocated for a Truth and Healing Commission to examine past U.S. government efforts to eradicate the languages, identities and cultural practices...

A congressional hearing on the abuses at the federal Indian boarding school system drew emotional testimony Wednesday on Capitol Hill ― a call for more to be done to unearth the abuses against native children. The unprecedented hearing comes after a U.S. Department of the Interior investigation listed hundreds of boarding schools across America where native children, including Native Hawaiians, were abused and stripped of their culture. Native Hawaiians are seeking to spread awareness...

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Wednesday outlined the next steps her department has planned to address the legacy of abuses at government-run schools for Indigenous children and legislation to examine the matter.  Haaland, the first Indigenous Cabinet secretary in U.S. history, testified Wednesday afternoon before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about the first volume of Interior’s investigative report into the schools. At these institutions, Indigenous children...

The U.S. Senate passed a measure on Thursday that would expand Veterans Administration health care for veterans with health conditions related to burn pit and Agent Orange exposure. U.S. Sen Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, helped to negotiate the bipartisan Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act. Both she and Hawaii colleague Sen. Brian Schatz voted in favor of the measure, which passed on a 84-14...

Sen. Brian Schatz doesn’t want the Senate to get left behind after a year of House action aimed at improving staff retention. The Hawaii Democrat, who has championed the cause in the past, sent a letter to Senate Legislative Branch appropriators pushing for a 20 percent bump to the allowance that senators use to pay their staffers. It could be a long shot, since Republicans seem reluctant to hike office budgets again after providing a modest increase last year of 5...

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, praised President Joe Biden’s action Monday to declare a two-year tariff exemption on solar panels produced by four Southeast Asian countries currently under investigation by the commerce department for allegedly violating anti-dumping rules imposed on imports from China. The president is also invoking the Defense Production Act to increase manufacturing of solar panels, insulation and other clean energy technology. “This move will unfreeze supply...

As the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 plot prepares to kick off its first public hearing, a bipartisan group of senators huddled Wednesday in the Capitol to negotiate new laws to prevent future candidates from stealing elections. Two sources familiar with the group’s work said it is close to a deal, having settled on a series of new provisions and working through options on one major unresolved issue. “We’ve made a lot of major...

More than $1.7 million in additional federal funding will be awarded to Hawaii to help protect native forest birds, waterbirds, seabirds, and yellow-faced bees, according to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. Schatz said the additional funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would go to the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources to support conservation projects on Hawaii island, Kauai, Maui and Oahu. “Our native bird and bee populations are in danger due to shrinking habitats,...

Native Hawaiian leaders told U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs this week that more funding and program access is needed from Washington to better fulfill the government’s federal trust responsibility. Schatz, who chairs the Indian Affairs Committee, wrapped up the second of two field hearings Thursday at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. The first hearing was held Wednesday at UH Manoa’s East-West Center. On Wednesday, Schatz said it was the...