In the news

State Sen. Gil Kahele, a longtime public servant on the Big Island before taking on a statewide office in 2011, has died at 73. The Hilo native was appointed by then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie in 2011 to represent the Big Island's District 1 in the state Legislature. He subsequently won re-election in 2012. Kahele most recently...

Sierra Schmitz came a long way to attend American University. She could have gone to college in her native Hawaii, but the allure of Washington, D.C. brought her here. Living in the nation’s capital opens up plenty of doors, but Schmitz never imagined she’d be a guest at the State of the Union address. Yet, sure enough, last week she...

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono was a vocal member of Democratic opposition Wednesday to a bill that would have added major new layers of approval required for any Iraqi or Syrian refugee to be granted asylum in the United States. The bill was defeated 43-55, falling five votes short of cloture that would have allowed a vote on the actual legislation. An...

US Senator Mazie Hirono released a statement on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments in US v Texas saying today’s announcement, “is a step forward for the millions of undocumented immigrants who remain trapped in the shadows.” The case challenges President Obama’s expanded Deferred Action for Childhood...

On Jan. 11, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. The case concerns assessment of union dues but holds broad implications for unions and the growth of economic inequality in America. In Friedrichs, several California teachers seek to invalidate the “agency shop,” an arrangement authorized in the...

Senator Mazie K. Hirono announced on Monday, that Sierra Schmitz, a Hawaii native and current American University student, will accompany her to President Obama's final State of the Union address Tuesday. "Students like Sierra are emblematic of the American ideal that with hard work, initiative, and ingenuity, one can achieve success. Inviting...

In addition to the national security funding and money for veterans, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said she supported the measure’s investment in middle-class families, particularly making the Earned Income, Child, and American Opportunity tax credits permanent. She said in a press release that an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice shows...

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono has urged President Barack Obama to expedite a newly proposed program to reunite family members of Filipino World War II veterans. In a Dec. 4 letter, Hirono and Sens. Harry Reid and Tim Kaine requested Obama and his administration to launch the parole program and accept applications by the end of the year. Under the...

President Obama signed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act earlier this month, securing $1.3 billion in federal help for Hawaii’s transportation over the next five years. According to a press release from Sen. Mazie Hirono’s office, $261 million will go toward public transit and almost $1.1 billion will be put toward...

Hawaii’s U.S. senators, both Democrats, are welcoming the bipartisan passage Thursday of a $300 billion transportation bill that now awaits President Obama’s signature. Mazie Hirono’s office says that, from this year through 2020, Hawaii will receive over $1.3 billion in federal transportation funds — $261 million...

If you take ideas like justice, individual responsibility and the right of people, of families, to make better lives for themselves, then we live in dark times. Right now, not 50 years ago but right now, men in power (and they’re nearly all men) have discovered that denouncing immigrants and refugees, promising to build giant walls at...

Each Veterans Day, we take the time to express our appreciation to the men, women and families who have so honorably served our nation. Over 14 years of continuous combat operations have taken a toll on our all-volunteer force and their families. President Barack Obama's recent announcement that 50 U.S. Special Forces will deploy to Syria to...

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono says she will support the agreement negotiated with Iran by President Barack Obama’s administration and other world powers to try to block Iran’s progress in developing a nuclear weapon. “After careful consideration, particularly weighing the risks involved in Congress approving or rejecting the deal, I have...

Filipino-American World War II veterans who have been waiting for years to bring their family members to the U.S. will soon be able to do so through a new policy, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday. The policy, announced along with a spate of other recommendations to improve the legal immigration system, will help the...

Hawaii’s significant defense interests in the FY 2016 federal budget are likely to find a sympathetic ear in the person of U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, named Thursday to the 16-member National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Committee. Hirono, a first-term senator, joins many more senior members on the committee, including Sens. John...

In five years, you are getting new money. Who knows if you will have more money, but definitely you are getting new money, because the 2020 version of the $10 bill will feature the picture of a noteworthy American woman. The question is whom to honor. Hawaii's U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono is looking forward to the debate. Earlier this month, Hirono...

Hawaii's congressional delegation is working on legislation inspired by Talia Williams, the 5-year-old girl who was beaten to death at the hands of her soldier father. Sen. Mazie Hirono shared Talia's story on the U.S. Senate floor Monday, saying that Talia could have been saved if the abuse, which occurred in military housing, had been reported to...

Just in time for the celebrations marking 117 years of Philippine independence on Friday, US legislators on Thursday (Friday in Manila) introduced a bill in the US Congress seeking to confer the highest congressional honor on Filipino and Filipino-American soldiers who fought with US forces during World War II. “Filipino veterans...

If the Taste of Hawaii gets much bigger, it will take over Upper Senate Park. At least a dozen lawmakers sampled some of Hawaii’s finest offerings at the second annual event, along with a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 in a spacious Dirksen Senate Office Building hearing room. Several guests overheard Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a...

More than 50 companies from Hawaii are converging on Capitol Hill this week for the second annual Hawaii on the Hill event, which kicked off on Tuesday with a reception at Google's Washington, D.C., headquarters. In all, more than 80 business owners and industry officials, including those from the Hawaii Food Manufacturers Association and Innovate...