Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced the Cultural Trade Promotion Act of 2025, bipartisan legislation to strengthen America’s creative industries and expand cultural exports. By bolstering the creative economy, this legislation will help U.S. businesses—including Native-owned, small, and rural enterprises—reach new global markets, create jobs, and strengthen America’s influence abroad amidst increasing competition from...

HONOLULU – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, released the following statement on recent illegal actions taken by the Trump administration to dismantle the U.S. Institute of Peace and U.S. Agency for Global Media, key organizations that support U.S. interests around the world. “Over the last few days, President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have illegally seized the United States Institute for Peace –...

HONOLULU – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) yesterday met with the Maui County Council and Hawai‘i Governor Josh Green to discuss federal funding for Lahaina recovery, disaster relief programs, and President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ recent attempts to slash vital services to pay for tax cuts for the ultrawealthy. During the meeting, Council Chair Alice L. Lee thanked Governor Green for his participation, which made the meeting a 'permitted interaction' under the state...

HONOLULU – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) released the following statement after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. “Schools across the country rely on federal dollars but Donald Trump would rather gut their funding and funnel it into the pockets of billionaires. Everything this administration does in the name of so-called efficiency and savings is about one thing: enriching the richest people to ever walk the planet. This time,...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) issued the following statement on voting to avert a government shutdown. "My job is to protect people in Hawai‘i. Today's vote on the continuing resolution was a difficult and close call, but ultimately, I made the determination that a flawed bill was better than no bill at all. A shutdown would enable Donald Trump and Elon Musk to unilaterally determine that the vast majority of federal workers are not essential. And given the number of federal...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and U.S. Representative Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) recently reintroduced bicameral legislation to ensure that all of the more than 65,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees – including frontline Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) – are afforded the same worker rights, protections, and pay system afforded to most other federal workers. The legislation comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s move last week to...

New Guide Available At Schatz.Senate.Gov/Help WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today launched a new guide to help Hawai‘i residents who have been impacted by recent changes to federal policies – including immigrants, veterans and other federal workers, and the LGBTQ+ community – find resources and support. The new webpage also encourages people to share their stories about how these new policies have affected their lives. “Recent changes to federal policies are having real...

Video Of Senator Schatz’s Remarks Available Here WASHINGTON — As prices surge and markets plunge, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) took to the Senate floor today to highlight how President Donald Trump’s reckless policies are throwing the economy into turmoil — policies that will force regular Americans to pay a steep price. “We’re 50 days into Donald Trump’s second term, and the American economy is already in freefall. Prices are soaring, stocks are plummeting, and people are panicking...

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved the Improving Flood and Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2025. The bipartisan bill, introduced by U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), would strengthen the collection of weather and soil moisture data, improving the accuracy of extreme weather warnings and agriculture forecasts. The proposed legislation would also codify and expand the National Oceanic and Atmospheric...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) released the following statement on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s illegal detainment of former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil which is being contested in federal court today. “Detaining a green card holder for removal from the country without due process is wrong – regardless of the circumstances. It is a violation of the law and sets us down a dangerous path where people who are in the country legally can be detained,...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) condemned the Trump administration’s closure of the U.S. Department of Education and the elimination of half of its workforce. “Over a third of kids in America lack basic reading skills and Donald Trump’s response is to gut the Department of Education and our public schools. Clearly our education system needs fixing so that every child in America can get the world-class education they deserve. But the solution is not to pull funding and...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) joined U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and 44 Senate Democrats to reintroduce the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a bill to protect workers' rights to unionize, negotiate better pay, and secure safer workplaces. “Workers deserve to be able to organize, negotiate fair wages, and advocate for better working conditions without interference,” said Senator Schatz. “The PRO Act strengthens those fundamental rights and...

WASHINGTON – U.S Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a U.S. Navy combat veteran, and 10 other Democratic senators demanded answers from Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Charles Ezell over the significant number of U.S. military veterans being fired from the federal workforce as part of mass layoffs by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk. In their letter to OPM, Schatz and Kelly were joined by Ranking Member of the Senate Veterans’ Affair...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawai‘i), along with U.S. Representatives Ed Case (D-Hawai‘i) and Jill Tokuda (D-Hawai‘i), introduced legislation to protect more than 10,000 plant and animal species native to the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawai‘i Native Species Conservation and Recovery Act would fund conservation and recovery projects addressing invasive species, the ecological consequences of climate change, native species’ habitats, and population...

WASHINGTON – Tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. HT, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) will meet with nonprofit organizations that serve communities harmed by President Donald Trump’s funding freeze and federal workers in Hawai‘i who were recently laid off through no fault of their own, as part of President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s unprecedented assault on the federal workforce. They will discuss how Trump’s moves to stop federal funding and fire thousands of workers across the...

WASHINGTON — During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing today, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, called attention to President Donald Trump’s unlawful efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), warning that it puts millions of lives and American interests at risk. “Because we haven't had Secretary Rubio here to talk about the...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, released the following statement on reports that the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Acting Assistant Administrator for Global Health was put on leave after authoring an internal memo detailing the failures at USAID to provide critical humanitarian aid. “These new details confirm our worst fears: the illegal and...

WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding decisions this week to fire or place on leave virtually all USAID staff, and to terminate more than 90 percent of USAID awards and more than 60 percent of State Department awards. The Senators...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) issued the following statement after voting for S.J.Res.10, a joint resolution to terminate President Trump’s “national energy emergency.” “Let’s make one thing clear: Trump invented an energy emergency to justify giving a blank check to Big Oil companies to do whatever they want. This is nothing more than a pretext for his “drill, baby, drill” agenda. In reality, we’re producing more energy in the United States than at any other point in...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, issued the following statement after the Trump administration moved to eliminate 1,600 jobs at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and place the majority of personnel remaining on leave. “Trump’s attempted shuttering of USAID is both illegal and carries deadly consequences around the world. None of this is about achieving...