Today, the U.S. House voted overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis to pass six of our twelve annual appropriations (federal funding) bills. This happened because Congress committed to rise above the division and partisanship, agree on what we could and compromise on what we needed to, and keep our government open.

This $565 billion measure for current Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 is not only good for our country, but very good for our Hawai’i. It includes billions in additional federal assistance for our key needs which I sought as a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, responsible for federal funding, along with $49 million I requested for fourteen very worthy community projects. My press release with much more detail on this key measure is here.

While we still have six more FY 2024 appropriations bills to go, I am already working on our FY 2025 appropriations cycle which begins this October 1^st. House Members are able to submit requests to our Appropriations Committee for inclusion in our FY 2025 bills, and I start early on obtaining, developing and prioritizing them. Community requests are due to my office in the next few weeks and I welcome your suggestions. More here . 

To further explain this federal funding process and how our community can work with me to ensure Hawaii’s priorities are met, I recently held a federal funding workshop for Hawaii’s elected officials and government agencies. That presentation addressed several subjects: federal finances 101; the general Congressional appropriations cycle; Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025 appropriations; how to pursue federal funding for Hawai‘i, including Congressional appropriations and federal administrative grants; and some landmark federal funding opportunities for Hawai‘i, especially the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) which have already brought almost $2 billion to Hawai‘i. A video of my presentation is here.

Live In-Person Talk Story Community Meetings

Although most of my time and work is in Washington, D.C., my district work periods back home are critical opportunities for me to connect with my over 700,000 constituents wherever and however I can. One key way which I have done throughout my now almost ten years representing Hawai‘i in Congress is my live open community meetings throughout my district.

I kicked off 2024 before I returned to Capitol Hill by hosting five Talk Stories, at Moanalua Middle School, McKinley High School, Mililani-Mauka Elementary School, Haha‘ione Elementary School and Kapolei High School. I covered many issues, answered many questions and had many constructive discussions which were  invaluable in keeping me connected and aligned back home. To share those meetings more broadly, a recap of my January Talk Stories is here. 

Preventing, Mitigating and Responding to Further Wildfires

Since August 8^th of last year, the full resources of my office have been continuously devoted to working with my Hawai‘i congressional delegation colleagues and our state and county government and community partners to do all that must be done for full recovery from the tragic Maui wildfires. To date, our federal government has invested in the range of $1 billion in this massive effort, but much more will be required over many years.

But as critical as that effort will remain, it is equally critical to recognize that the Maui wildfires were not an isolated occurrence over the past decade-plus, as we have seen since above Mililani Mauka. They also exposed vulnerabilities in our preparedness for disaster across our state. 

We must learn and act on the lessons of Maui now, including the immediate need to fully review where we face similar risks elsewhere in our state; identify, coordinate and mobilize resources for wildfire risk prevention, mitigation and response; and take full action now to prevent another such tragedy and to mitigate and respond to further wildfires as they may occur.

Our federal government has a major role to play in this effort, one we must be sure to maximize and coordinate. 

To that end, my office, working with state and county partners, created our Hawai‘i Wildfire Prevention/Mitigation/Response: Guide to Federal Resources and Assistance (copy found in my press release here) to identify the major federal, state, county and community organizations responsible for addressing wildfire risk along with the major federal programs which provide funding and other assistance to address wildfire risk and response, as well as some specific federal initiatives that will improve these efforts. I will use this plan as a guide for my own federal program and funding efforts in Congress to do everything possible to prevent another Maui, and welcome your comments.

Helping You with Your Individual Needs (Casework)  

As I noted earlier, one of the three parts of my mission is helping my constituents with your own individual questions and needs. We refer to these efforts as casework, and my staff in D.C. and Honolulu are here to serve you with them wherever and however we can.

Here are just a few examples of individual constituent assistance successes, all from the past few weeks:

• We assisted a constituent to receive three months of military retirement back pay;
• We helped a couple to receive a tax refund after our inquiry to the IRS;
• We helped a constituent to finally secure her driver’s license after we checked with the City;
• We looked into a long-running matter with a federal agency, resulting in a constituent finally securing her much-needed monthly retirement annuity.

If you have an individual question or concerns that you need some help with, especially with a federal agency (but we routinely help with many other questions or issues), please contact us. More information on our services and getting in touch is here.  

I hope that this brief report on at least one major success in Congress today and on some of my efforts to help our country, our Hawai‘i and you and yours are a few pieces in showing that Congress can work for us all. I remain committed to that goal.  

As always, I deeply appreciate your consideration and assistance as we all work to find the best way forward for our country and Hawai‘i. For more information on my efforts, and how we can help you, please visit my website at case.house.gov. If I can help you and yours with your own questions and needs, email us at [email protected], or call us at (808) 650-6688.