In the news

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) spent the hours before major surgery fighting against the controversial Republican health care bill. Hirono was diagnosed with kidney cancer in May and was to undergo surgery to remove a lesion on her rib Tuesday afternoon. But that didn’t keep her from doing her job Monday night. Hirono, 69, stood on the Senate floor...

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono is decrying the Republican health care bill as “mean, ugly” a day ahead of her own surgery.Speaking on the Senate floor today, Hirono says people typically figure health insurance is a concern for someone else until they get sick. Hirono announced in May that she was being treated for kidney cancer. She is having...

NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, a member of the Judiciary Committee, about why she voted against Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court and why she supports a Democratic filibuster.ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:Now we turn to Senator Mazie Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Today she voted...

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono will rejoin the Judiciary Committee, where she vows to vet President-elect Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominees. “The Senate Judiciary Committee will be on the front lines of fighting to protect Hawaii from the incoming Trump administration’s proposals that erode civil rights and target immigrants,”...

Senator Mazie K. Hirono announced that the Hawai?i Department of Health will receive $1.1 million in Centers for Disease Control funding to fight the Zika virus. According to Hirono, the funding will bolster Hawai?i’s lab testing capacity as well as a variety of education, and vector control measures. “Hawai?i needs to be vigilant...

The president has signed into law a measure that will award Filipino veterans of World War II the Congressional Gold Medal. Under the legislation, over 260,000 Filipino and Filipino-American soldiers who responded to President Franklin Roosevelt's call-to-duty will be awarded the nation's highest civilian honor. The measure was sponsored by U.S....

Count Mazie Hirono of Hawaii among a growing number of members of Congress who want to know more — much more — about Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election. It comes in the wake of reports that the CIA believes there is evidence that Russia tried to influence the election to favor Republican Donald Trump. Hirono...

Hawaii's military installations will receive more than $277 million in construction under the defense spending bill passed by the U.S. Senate Thursday. The National Defense Authorization Act, which now goes to President Barack Obama, lays out the military resource levels and defense policies for fiscal year 2017. “Hawaii’s vital role,...

A federal bipartisan effort led by Hawaii legislators to recognize Filipino veterans of World War II for their service unanimously passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday and now awaits a presidential signature. The bill will award the Congressional Gold Medal to thousands of veterans who fought under U.S. command but were not American...

A bill to award Filipino World War II veterans with the nation’s highest civilian honor is one step closer to becoming a reality. The Filipino Veterans Congressional Gold Medal Bill was introduced last year by U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono. It passed unanimously in the Senate in July, and unanimously passed the House on Wednesday. Hirono says the...

Ninety-year-old Waipahu resident Narzal Concepcion was hopeful Saturday about a federal program allowing Filipino World War II veterans or their surviving spouses to bring family to the United States and bypass a backlogged immigration system that has left some waiting outside the country for more than 20 years. “This program is very nice and it is...

U.S. Mazie Hirono met with Judge Merrick Garland on Wednesday and said that her Republican colleagues should “do their job” and hold a hearing on the high court nominee. “Judge Garland’s character and record of judicial service are impressive, and Americans deserve to hear from him in a public Judiciary Committee hearing,” said Hirono, a Democrat...

A vote on emergency funding to fight the spread of the Zika virus was taken on Tuesday morning in the United States Senate. Senator Brian Schatz, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee; and Mazie Hirono both said they voted to advance $1.1 billion in funding. “Zika is a public health emergency,” said Senator Schatz, who is also a member of...

Elected officials and Asian-American community leaders, including U.S. Sen Mazie Hirono, are denouncing a Republican congressman’s use of a derogatory term to describe Japanese individuals. According to an MSNBC report, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) used the word “Japs” when discussing Donald Trump’s views on national...

Senator Mazie Hirono voted on Thursday morning in support of the Fiscal Year 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. The appropriations fund the activities of the United States Department of Energy and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Provisions advocated by Senator Hirono for Hawai’i harbors and renewable energy investments are...

A bill that would remove derogatory racial terms, including the word “Oriental,” from federal language has been passed by Congress and will now go to President Barack Obama to sign into law.    The U.S. Senate unanimously passed H.R. 4238 -- introduced by U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY –...

Senator Mazie Hirono on Tuesday called for unanimous consent on the Senate floor to confirm Hawai’i’s Clare Connors and other judicial nominees. The Office of Senator Hirono said in a release that some of the nominees from courts across the country have been waiting months, and in some cases years, for a floor vote. Kentucky Senator...

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, and Bill Nelson (D-FL) have introduced legislation to “fully fund” President Barack Obama’s $1.9 billion funding request to fight the Zika virus. The measure is co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL), Al Franken (D-MN), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Jack...

Hawai’i Senator Mazie Hirono and Florida Senator Bill Nelson introduced legislation on Friday that would fund President Barack Obama’s $1.9 billion funding request to fight Zika. The legislation would fund essential programs like the expansion of diagnostic testing and treatment capacity, increased education, improved health services...

Matthews: Joining me right now is U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono, Democrat from Hawaii. Senator, thanks for joining us. Senator Hirono: Good to be here, Chris. Matthews: It looks to me like a lot of people are affected by, if the Court goes back and it's 4-4 tie, means it goes back to the appellate level, stops the President in his tracks, and would...