Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and service of Maui County councilmember Tasha Kama, a mother to all, a warm hand, a hug when you needed it most, a voice for the voiceless, and a champion for everyone she served.

Tasha was a fierce advocate for affordable housing, a tireless defender of Native Hawaiian rights, and steadfast for our ``children''; ``keiki'' and our ``elders''; ``kupuna.'' More than any title or position, she carried a quiet strength and a deep faith that grounded our entire community. She showed up for people, not for recognition, but because she believed every person deserved dignity, respect, and aloha.

Hawaii, and the world, needs more Tashas. With her now watching from above, we must try to live and lead with the same courage, compassion, and unwavering aloha that defined her life.

To the Kama ``family''; ``o'hana'' and all those whose lives she shaped, we offer our deepest condolences. May her legacy continue to guide us forward.

Mr. Speaker, may my friend rest in aloha.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, today we celebrate National Rural Health Day here on the House floor, standing shoulder to shoulder with our colleagues in the Bipartisan Rural Health Caucus. I am very humbled and honored to be here with my friend and fellow co-chair, Representative Diana Harshbarger.

A big mahalo, as we have just heard from Members on both sides of the aisle, who took to the floor to raise up the needs, the challenges, the hopes, and the dreams for healthcare in rural America.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Harshbarger).

Mr. Speaker, National Rural Health Day is a chance to honor the communities that keep this country moving: the farmers, teachers, ``seniors,'' ``kupuna,'' health workers, first responders, small business owners, and families who fuel our local economies and preserve our way of life. It is also a moment for Congress to recognize that rural communities face challenges that are different not because they are less but because they are often asked to survive systems that were not built for them.

What some in Washington call innovation is really rural America being forced into a constant state of adaptation, forced to make do, to improvise, and stretch thin resources even thinner simply to maintain basic access to healthcare.

Every day in Hawaii, I see mobile clinics reaching isolated communities, school-based health centers stepping up for low-income children, and community health workers bridging cultural and geographic divides. Rural communities everywhere are pioneering models of behavioral health integration in telemedicine, not from a place of creativity or convenience but necessity and survival.

We have proven we can adapt to impossible situations, but extraordinary flexibility cannot and must not replace true investment. Ingenuity cannot replace Federal partnership, and resilience cannot continue to be a substitute for resources.

We have unfinished business here before us in Congress, but what gives me hope is that we have allies and advocates on both sides of the aisle ready to lead.

Across the country, from the volcano-lined communities in my district of Ka'u to the farming slopes of Upcountry Maui, to the taro patches that I see on Kauai, one truth is crystal clear: Rural America is tired of being resilient.

When people call us resilient, what they are really saying is we have been forced to survive hardship. Resilience means we are struggling. Resilience means we are being asked to endure what no community should ever be asked to endure.

Our people cannot survive on resiliency alone. Rural America is tired of being tired. Rural America is tired of jumping from one difficult situation to another. Rural America is tired of learning to bend without breaking due to a lack of resources, investment, and support.

What rural America needs is an immediate, revolutionary, transformational investment, a historic top-to-bottom overhaul that rebuilds the healthcare system from the inside out. Rural America needs a profound change on a scale that we have not yet seen before and, most importantly, rural America, where we all live, needs a chance to be known as more than just resilient. It deserves a chance to thrive.

We cannot rely on Band-Aids, small steps forward, and short-term pilot projects, especially when we know families are driving hours or having to even get on a plane for care. Hospitals are closing, behavioral health crises are going untreated. When the difference between life and death is the difference between one rural town and the nearest city, this is unacceptable. Our people will literally die without bold, immediate, systemic action on rural health.

Today, we still lack long-term stability for community health centers, teaching health centers, and the National Health Service Corps. Critical workforce and training programs remain stuck in reauthorization limbo, and bipartisan bills to strengthen EMS capacity, expand telehealth, and improve behavioral health access still await action.

We said these issues were urgent last year when we were on the floor. They are even more urgent today. Rural communities cannot afford another year of waiting. That is why we are pushing forward with real, bipartisan solutions that simply cannot wait another Congress to be enacted into law.

My rural health clinic modernization package, including the Rural Behavioral Health Improvement Act, cuts red tape and strengthens reimbursements so rural clinics can stay open.

The HEALTH Act protects telehealth access, including audio-only visits for families who lack broadband or live hours away from their care.

The Community TEAMS Act and Strengthening Pathways to Health Professions Act rebuild the rural workforce pipeline, supporting students and providers and keeping scholarships and loan repayment programs accessible and tax free.

The Rural Health Care Technical Assistance Act gives rural facilities the tools they need to prevent closures and stay financially stable.

These are practical, bipartisan solutions built for lasting impact, not another short-term fix to grab a headline. That is why caucuses like ours, the Bipartisan Rural Health Caucus, and Special Order hours like the ones that you have seen tonight matter. They remind America and this Congress that despite everything going on in our politics, there is still a path forward. There is still work we can only accomplish together.

In closing, I thank all of my colleagues who joined us tonight to give their speeches and to the over 70 Members, Republicans and Democrats, who make up our caucus. Their presence sends a clear message: Rural communities matter.

The voices of my constituents in Hawaii and rural Americans across this great country keep us grounded. Every nurse, doctor, EMT, pharmacist, community health worker, and small clinic team show us both the urgency and the solutions every single day. This work is not just policy. It is people. It is families. It is the future of rural America.

Let's continue to listen, to act, and deliver together because when rural communities thrive, all of America thrives.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 9 o'clock and 59 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.

Madam Speaker, when the Armed Services Committee reported out this year's NDAA, it was a bill I was proud to support after months of bipartisan work, careful oversight, and real provisions to strengthen our national defense. That is the kind of process this committee is known for.

As we have sadly seen before, the amendments being considered are largely partisan poison pills set to, once again, diminish the bipartisan work of our committee. Through a closed, partisan process, Rules Committee Republicans stripped away balance and accountability. They denied Democrats and, by extension, our constituents the chance to openly debate

issues that demand answers, like the National Guard in our streets, the purges at the Pentagon, or the abuse of Trump's unilateral military force abroad.

Not surprisingly, not one of the ten amendments I submitted were made in order.

Let me tell you what Republicans apparently don't care about: Accountability for predators.

I offered an amendment to disinter Dr. Robert McCormick Browne, a man accused of sexually abusing dozens of students in Hawaii, from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. A predator like that does not deserve to rest amongst heroes. The Republicans said no. By refusing to act, they are, once again, protecting a pedophile, allowing him to lie in a place of honor instead of standing amongst survivors and justice.

Taking care of veterans. I proposed suspending commissary debit card fees that unfairly tax veterans and their caregivers. I also proposed eliminating medical copays for Native Hawaiian veterans, the same healthcare benefits that Native American and Alaska Native veterans currently receive. Republicans said no. Apparently, they believe veterans should keep getting nickeled-and-dimed for basic healthcare and food.

Madam Speaker, with regard to safe housing for servicemembers, I proposed an amendment to increase investment in barracks for unaccompanied servicemembers and establish clear timeliness standards for maintenance work orders.

No servicemembers should be forced to live with black mold, broken plumbing, and unsafe conditions. I have walked through those barracks myself.

Republicans said no, again. I guess they are fine sending troops off to war and combat and then sending them home to live in squalor.

With regard to standing up to China, I introduced an amendment requiring congressional approval before advanced AI chips, critical to our most sophisticated weapons and intelligence systems, could be exported to Beijing. It was blocked.

I also proposed raising the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative cap to $8.5 billion, fully paid for with existing tariff revenue that is coming in, to strengthen Indo-Pacific deterrence. Republicans still said no. If this is their idea of strength, China will be the one that wins.

It wasn't just me that didn't get amendments included in the NDAA. Many of my colleagues put forward commonsense ideas like prohibiting the deportation of veterans without due process, as in the case of my constituent, Mr. Sae Joon Park, or clarifying that the National Guard can't be turned into an immigration police force. Yet both of these amendments were blocked.

Madam Speaker, here is the truth. It is an intentional choice that we make to take an oath to be of the people and for the people.

In a democracy, we debate. We vote. We let the American people see exactly where we stand. In an autocracy, that choice is stripped away. Dissent is silenced, and decisions are made behind closed doors.

That is the difference. That is the danger. That is a choice. Shutting down debate isn't just about dysfunction. It is a betrayal of our oath and our disservice to every single servicemember, veteran, and family who depends on us.

They fought for us. They have sacrificed for us. They have died for us. They deserve leaders who fight for them and not politicians who game the process.

I will always stand up for all of Hawaii's servicemembers, their families, and the communities that support them. Their sacrifices inspire me every single day.

Madam Speaker, there is another way. There is a better way. It is called democracy, and it begins with a choice.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to this amendment.

Let's be clear: The Exceptional Family Member Program does not pay for medical care. Its purpose is simple: to ensure that military families are stationed where the medical and educational services they need are available.

This amendment misrepresents the mission, and it undermines it.

We ask our servicemembers to sacrifice so much for this country, in many cases, even their lives. As a mother, I would never ask them to sacrifice their child's well-being. That is not just offensive, that is cruel, and it is inhumane.

Gender-affirming care is healthcare. Denying it sends a harmful message to military families with transgender children that their needs, their dignity, who they are, and their very lives do not matter.

In addition, when we harm their families and when we harm their children, we undermine the very readiness we are so focused on as a military, the very people whom we rely on to be on the front lines, defending this Nation every day.

Our servicemembers put everything on the line, and we should do the same for them. Vote ``no'' on this amendment.

Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition.

Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to this amendment striking funding for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative.

Coming from Hawaii, on the front lines of the Indo-Pacific, I know firsthand how critically important it is to keep our ties in this region strong.

The Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative is not just another line item. It is a vital provision that enables Taiwan to maintain its self- defense capabilities and sends a clear message to both Taipei and Beijing that the United States is serious about deterrence. It keeps us out of that war that the sponsor of this amendment is so concerned about. Cutting this funding would only invite Beijing to push harder, not pull back.

We say we want to be tough on China, yet here we are entertaining whether to cut one of the clearest demonstrations of our strength and resolve. The fact that this amendment has even been made in order undermines us. Just giving this amendment airtime sows seeds of doubt in Taiwan as to our support and further emboldens Beijing. This is not, by any means, a serious amendment.

In this very same bill that we are debating, we are considering bipartisan provisions that strengthen our defense relations with Taiwan, expanding DOD's annual readiness assessments, even Republican- led amendments to invite Taiwan into RIMPAC and bolster its energy security. These are the kinds of amendments that are aligned with the United States' interests. These are the kinds of amendments that foster deterrence, not instigate and facilitate Chinese propaganda, as this one would.

When we question our support for Taiwan outright, as this amendment does, onlookers will wonder what else are we willing to walk back on? Who else will we abandon on the line? That is not the message we should be sending. This amendment is nothing more than a political stunt that should never have seen the light of day. Beijing is watching, my friends. Passing this amendment is a win for China. Do not be fooled.

Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. McCormick).

Mr. Chair, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Georgia.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers).

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, we have heard strong voices from both sides of the aisle that this is a bad, reckless, dangerous amendment. Every dollar and day we spend supporting Taiwan is another day we keep our servicemembers, our children, and our grandchildren out of war. This is about putting Americans first.

It is a very simple decision. I ask my colleagues to vote ``no.''

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment, which would create broad exemptions from the Endangered Species Act on military and National Guard lands. In Hawaii, this would be akin to a taking.

The idea that protecting endangered species and maintaining readiness are mutually exclusive is simply false. Across the country, including in Hawaii, the Department of Defense has shown it can partner with conservation experts and local communities to safeguard fragile ecosystems while still meeting its mission.

We should be doing more to hold the Department of Defense accountable and strengthening these efforts, not giving it a blank check to disregard environmental laws whenever it claims national security.

In Hawaii, where trust around military land use is damaged, quite frankly, and lease negotiations are ongoing, accountability is not optional. A back-door taking of our lands is 100 percent unacceptable.

Allowing this amendment to pass would set a dangerous precedent, undo decades of progress, and erode community trust. Protecting our environment and ensuring national defense are not opposing goals. They are shared responsibilities that we must uphold together.

Madam Chair, I strongly urge my colleagues to reject this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, last week, I joined our Maui ``ohana''; ``family,'' law enforcement, and officials from across Hawaii as we bid farewell to Suzanne O, a beloved member of the Maui Police Department, who was killed in the line of duty, the first for our department in 26 years.

Raised in American Samoa and a graduate of Farrington High School, Officer O hoped to be a role model for other Pacific Islander girls, and she was. One of those girls, her niece Oleya, spoke at her memorial, calling her aunty ``my favorite, beautiful police officer'' and asking her to visit her in her dreams.

Officer O was a proud member of the MPD Honor Guard, and she received a certificate of merit for her heroic efforts during the Maui wildfires.

In a final act of ``aloha''; ``love and fellowship,'' 911 dispatchers issued a special broadcast across all channels: ``She embodied skill, tenacity, courage, and compassion in all she did. We are all better for having known her. Employee number: 30881; Call sign: One-Alpha-30; Officer: Suzanne O; end of watch: August 15, 2025.''

As Officer O watches over us now from above, we will do our very best to serve, live, and lead like she did.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my colleagues and reinforce their warning and urgent call to action.

Mr. Speaker, today, we stand at a crossroads. The world is once again drifting toward a future where nuclear weapons are not just tools of deterrence but urgent threats hanging over every human life.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to look away, not when the lessons of the past are still very visible amongst us. Look to the people of the Marshall Islands. Many of them are living in my district, part of our Hawaii ohana, whose lands became sacrifice zones in the name of power. Entire communities were displaced, and generations were scarred by radiation. The Bikini Atoll, once a paradise, became a proving ground for devastation.

These are not just theoretical consequences, lines on paper, assumptions, and equations. They were real, and they are very real still.

The United States and its allies conducted 318 nuclear tests in the Pacific islands. The people who lived on the islands lost their ancestral homes, now uninhabitable, and the people who were exposed to fallout were immediately sickened with ongoing, long-term impacts for human health, including increased rates of birth defects, genetic disorders, and secondary cancers.

The nuclear age taught us that while bombs may drop in seconds, their impact crosses centuries and generations, and now, instead of learning from history and learning from the mistakes of our past, we are poised to repeat it with greater risk, fewer safeguards, and far more at stake.

Today, the United States, Russia, and China inched closer to an unrestrained three-way arms race as we collectively spend well over $1 trillion on updated and new nuclear warheads and means of delivery. Just one of these programs, as was mentioned, the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, will cost $141 billion according to the Department of Defense.

Keep in mind, Mr. Speaker, that is not even the bottom line. Their cost estimates keep growing and growing. A new arms race is a race with no finish line. Let us be clear: There are no winners, only losers in this race.

It doesn't have to be this way.

We must urgently renew and expand nuclear arms control treaties with both Russia and with China. The path to security lies not in new warheads or Golden Domes but in dialogue, transparency, and mutual restraint. We must invest as much into diplomacy and prevention as we do into silos and interceptors.

Let us be clear. All it takes is one bomb, one miscalculation, and one moment of madness, and everything--everything--will end.

The clock is ticking, but the future is still ours to shape. Let us choose wisdom over fear, peace over peril, and life over annihilation.

Mahalo to my colleague, Congressman McGovern, for organizing this Special Order hour.

I ask on August 6 and August 9, let us take a moment to pause and remember we do have a choice.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the rule to make in order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.

Mr. Speaker, just days ago, a Hawaii veteran, Sae Joon Park, said goodbye to his family which included his elderly mother with dementia, his two adult children, and his home.

Mr. Park was shot twice in combat, earning a Purple Heart for his bravery. Yet despite his sacrifice, ICE officers gave him no choice but to deport himself back to South Korea after nearly 50 years.

Mr. Park served. He fought. He belonged. Yes, he made mistakes, as many veterans struggling with PTSD do, but he turned his life around. That is the reality for many veterans. They fight hard for this country and still face battles back home and, too often, alone.

Republicans are now pushing a funding bill that would abandon even more veterans like Mr. Park. It shifts critical care from the VA to private corporations and makes it harder for women and immigrant veterans to get the services they need

This bill isn't efficiency. It is cruelty. I will not stand by while Republicans turn our veterans into bargaining chips.

When we fail our veterans, we are not just breaking a promise. We are breaking our people.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of national Women Veterans Day.

Last week, I spoke with a combat veteran from Kaneohe, Hawaii, my hometown. She was among the first class of women to graduate from West Point. Two decades after leaving the Army, she returned to serve as a chaplain. She deployed to Afghanistan, earned Airborne and Air Assault qualification, and was awarded the Legion of Merit and five Meritorious Service Medals.

Yet she felt compelled to come all the way to Washington, D.C., to join in a veterans protest on D-day because the very progress she helped to secure she now saw being callously unraveled.

These include women's history erased from Defense websites; senior female leaders pushed out; accountability on sexual assault fading; and a narrow, male-centric culture of lethality that sidelines women in service.

She asked me: How is it we are fighting and having to refight the battles we have already won?

Shame on this administration for turning its back on women like my constituent who have worn the uniform and are now made to fight again for the dignity and respect they have already earned.

Women veterans are watching, and they will not be silent.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the Trump administration's abrupt, unjustified attempt to close Job Corps centers nationwide.

I have been to the Job Corps graduation on Maui. I have looked into the eyes of students whose lives were changed. I have walked the grounds of the Waimanalo campus where young people, many of whom had nowhere else to turn, found a path to a good job and a better life.

These are not statistics. These are real people, and they deserve better than to be abandoned by a system that was supposed to lift them up.

A mother in Hilo wrote to me and shared that no amount of mental help was able to save her son, only Job Corps.

She told me: Please save my son. Please help save Job Corps.

Today, I rise not just for policy, but for people. Every young person in Hawaii and across this country just needs a chance. We must not turn our backs on them now.

Mr. Speaker, when I first met Atalina, she was on the front lines of the pandemic, keeping families housed and fed. When fires ravaged Maui, she was there for the victims.

Atalina is a pillar of her community and her church. She gives everything she has to others, but even angels need help.

Atalina is the mother of five, soon to be six. Her husband, who is battling cancer and now severe back injuries, can't work consistently. Atalina still works full time and still serves her neighbors and community.

``If I put my entire family on my employer insurance,'' she told me, ``it would cost more than half my paycheck.''

Medicaid gave her family access to lifesaving care. SNAP made sure her kids didn't go to bed hungry. These programs aren't ``handouts,'' she says. ``They are lifelines.''

Now, because her income barely crossed the threshold, she has lost SNAP. ``It doesn't mean we can suddenly afford groceries,'' she says. ``It just means we sacrifice even more.''

If we cut Medicaid and SNAP, we are not trimming fat. We are cutting hope.

Let's be clear about the false choice we are being asked to make. Do we feed the greed of billionaires, or do we feed and care for families like Atalina's? We know who Republicans are choosing.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a warning--no, a plea.

Rural America is already in crisis. People there die younger. Mothers face greater risks when giving birth. Hospitals teeter on the edge of collapse.

Medicaid is the thin lifeline holding together that fragile system. Cut it and people will die.

At Adventist Health Castle in Kailua, 75 percent of patients rely on Medicaid and Medicare. They have already weathered the storm of COVID. With new GOP-led cuts to provider fees, they may be forced to shut down essential services--obstetrics, pediatrics, and emergency services, care that literally keeps babies and people alive.

This is not just about one hospital in Hawaii. This is a national crisis. Rural Americans face significantly worse health outcomes and health disparities. In too many rural counties, life expectancy is a decade shorter than that of their urban neighbors.

Maternal mortality in rural areas is nearly double that of urban areas, and more than 200 rural hospitals have closed their doors since 2005. Over 450 more are currently at risk of shutting their doors.

This isn't hypothetical. It is happening right now. Let's be clear: When these providers and hospitals close their doors, everyone in those communities, including, by the way, some Members of Congress and their families, will lose their healthcare. It won't bring me or anyone impacted any comfort or peace to say, ``I told you so.''

Suma Metla, a pediatric physical therapist and mom, treats kids with complex needs. Forty percent of her patients are on Medicaid. She told me plainly, as she sat in my office today with her 1-year-old, Kashi: If these cuts pass, we will not survive past this year.

Already, speech therapists and other specialists are shutting their doors in Hawaii and across the country. Her own practice is buried in a 2-week backlog. One of two hospitals that offer similar care, and we only have two throughout the State, has a 100-child waiting list right now.

Suma has traveled to Lanai to treat children no one else could reach. She tried to keep care going through telehealth, but when Congress let those tools expire, families were left stranded.

Let's talk about the preschool teacher in my district whose son was born weighing less than 2 pounds--5 months in the NICU, emergency surgery, feeding tubes, with a hospital bill 50 times more than she will make in a single year covered by Medicaid.

That little boy is now 3 years old, full of life, laughter, and love and obsessed with music and trucks. He is alive only because Medicaid was there.

We cannot forget what is at stake. These are not just numbers on a page. They are real lives, real children, real families, and real communities, people like you and me.

Slashing Medicaid won't balance a budget. It will close hospital doors. It will rip care from those who need it most. It will end lives.

We must not let this happen. Find the courage. Have a conscience. Vote ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to President Trump's unlawful and unjust deportations to El Salvador.

Earlier this year, the administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime statute, to deport 137 Venezuelan men to a notorious prison abroad. This archaic law is being exploited to bypass our immigration system and deny individuals their most basic legal protections.

These deportations were not based on convictions or due process. They are based on ancestry and suspicions--tattoos misidentified, affiliations assumed, rights ignored.

The Supreme Court affirmed, by a 7-2 majority, these people deserve due process under our Constitution.

For me and for Representative Takano, this strikes painfully close to home.

During World War II, the same law was used to imprison over 120,000 Japanese Americans, including our families. My great-grandfather was taken from his home, incarcerated without cause, solely because of his ethnicity.

Now, we are seeing the same injustice unfold again. In communities like Kona, Hawaii, a child was taken from his elementary school classroom. Families are taken from their homes, and people live in fear. Children miss school. Parents avoid lifesaving care and their doctors. Faith communities grow quiet, not because of guilt but because of government overreach.

Let us be clear. These individuals are our neighbors, workers, students, and friends. They deserve dignity and due process, not detention and deportation.

Sending people to foreign prisons without a trial, without rights, and without hope is not only unconstitutional. It is un-American, and it must stop.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to honor the oath we all took in this very Chamber to uphold the Constitution, protect due process, and defend the values that define our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the workers and families of Maui, still recovering from the devastating wildfires of 2023. Displaced workers continue to drive Maui's recovery, rebuilding homes, clearing debris, restoring infrastructure, and supporting their communities.

The National Dislocated Worker Grant has been vital in funding such disaster recovery work and providing job training, temporary employment, and career services to wildfire survivors.

I am grateful to the Department of Labor for awarding Hawaii $2.5 million in dislocated worker grant funding. While this is a step in the right direction, the livelihoods of displaced workers, the health of our local economy, and the long-term trajectory of Maui's recovery remain in the balance.

We must continue working to secure all remaining dislocated worker funds available--$8 million--to ensure the program continues through September 2025. We can and must give our local workers this certainty during an uncertain time. Without these funds, we risk losing momentum in the recovery and leaving workers without crucial support.

Maui's recovery is not just a priority. It is a promise to those who have lost so much. I will keep fighting to ensure that promise is kept.