In the News

A group of Senate Democrats on Wednesday urged U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to press the government of Israel to protect journalists in Gaza and allow international media to access the war-torn territory. Their letter, which was led by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and signed by 16 other Democratic senators, cited the recent deaths of Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif, who Israel claims is connected to Hamas, and five other reporters by an Israeli drone strike. More than 190...

A bipartisan group of senators wrote to Meta to raise concerns about the company’s artificial intelligence chatbots. The letter, signed by Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Katie Britt, R-Ala., and others, followed stories from Reuters about CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s frustration with the slow pace of Meta’s AI rollout and about how Meta’s digital companions were permitted to hold “sensual” conversations with children. “The wellbeing of children should not be sacrificed in the race...

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz has spent the last several weeks back home in Hawai?i, traveling across the islands to talk to voters. He heads back to the nation's capital next week. HPR talked to Schatz about what’s on voters' minds and what the Democratic Party can do to counter the Trump administration's actions. Interview highlights On which national issues are at the forefront for Hawai?i residents U.S. SEN. BRIAN SCHATZ: Most people are just trying to survive and want to understand what all of...

Nearly 250 people gathered at the Kahilu Town Hall in Kamuela on Tuesday to engage with U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who fielded over a dozen questions about topics ranging from ICE raids and protecting democracy, to the environment and America’s relationship with Israel. Concerns about cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also were brought up several times in questions from residents. Schatz advised that understanding new eligibility requirements and managing...

Hawai?i U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz visited the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center on O?ahu as health care facilities and low-income families brace for looming federal cuts. WCCHC serves thousands of low-income households every year, and provides not just health care, but food, job training and other services. Congressional cuts to programs like SNAP and Medicaid, along with cuts to other types of funding, could impact the services of facilities like WCCHC. The health center and Schatz are...

Kauai had the opportunity for an in-person visit with U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) who visited the Garden Island Thursday to visit two of the national wildlife refuges, and meet with the Kauai Chamber of Commerce. During a tour of the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge and the Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge and Lighthouse, Schatz was able to tour some of the habitat restoration projects and discuss issues. Schatz, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has helped secure...

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs unanimously voted Tuesday to advance a bipartisan housing package that included the Reforming Disaster Recovery Act. The provision, authored by US Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawai‘i and Susan Collins of Maine, would help communities recover from major disasters. “Right now, each time a disaster happens, communities in crisis are forced to wait for Congress to pass a disaster funding bill before Housing and Urban Development can help. Our...

WASHINGTON >> Members of Congress are expressing renewed support for the nation’s weather forecasting system after deadly flooding in Texas and elsewhere put the focus on cuts within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Trump administration proposed cutting NOAA’s fiscal 2026 budget to $4.5 billion — a 27%, nearly $1.7 billion reduction from the estimated fiscal 2025 spending. But Senate appropriators from both parties highlighted the importance of NOAA, and...

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, upped his criticism of the Trump administration Wednesday, grilling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine about the deployment of National Guard and U.S. Marine personnel to quell protests in Los Angeles during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense hearing. He called on Republicans to kill the president’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” in a speech from the Senate floor.  At the subcommittee hearing,...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, says he’s in for a fight against cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration. Hawaii is in the midst of several lawsuits against the Trump administration. “I’m more on the side of fighting them because there are very few opportunities for compromise,” Schatz told Hawaii News Now. “It’s a very, very scary time,” he added. Schatz met with various Hawaii groups Tuesday on impacts from the Trump administration and he spoke with leaders...

US Sen. Brian Schatz and a coalition of 29 senators are calling on the US Department of Health and Human Services to immediately reinstate federal Title X family planning funding that was recently withheld from 23 states, including Hawai‘i. In a letter led by Schatz and Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai‘i), the lawmakers warned that the funding lapse endangers health care access for nearly one million low-income and uninsured people. “We urge you to...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow/AP) - U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is speaking out against the U.S. Department of Education’s plan to lay off more than 1,300 employees. “I think this is flatly impermissible under the statute,” he told Hawaii News Now. In a memo issued Tuesday, top officials ordered employees to vacate their offices and work from home in preparation for the layoffs. Those impacted by the cuts will go on administrative leave beginning March 21 with layoffs expected to take effect in...

Nothing about Donald Trump’s hasty and illegal attempted dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—and with it, the decapitation of American power—is remotely efficient. Just this week, USAID’s now-former Inspector General found that there is currently half a billion dollars’ worth of American-grown food stranded at ports and warehouses across the country, on the verge of spoiling. That’s corn and rice and lentils and soybeans, grown in Iowa and Kansas and...

HONOLULU (KHON2) — A new effort led by Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz looks to crack down on foreign and intentionally mislabeled ahi. On Wednesday, Feb. 5, the Senate Commerce Committee advanced the Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act. The bipartisan bill would direct NOAA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to “develop a standard way to identify the country of origin of red snapper and certain species of tuna imported into the United States.” “Seafood that’s caught...

One thing was immediately clear in the aftermath of the devastating fires that burned Lahaina to the ground in August 2023: building back this beautiful, historic, multicultural town would be a long and difficult journey. The damage was that vast; the destruction so total. Almost a year-and-a-half later, life in Lahaina is still nowhere near back to normal. And above all, they want — and deserve — stability and security. Last month, Congress took a big step toward delivering that by approving...

Rebuilding or perhaps recreating Maui’s Lahaina community needs two things, according to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, Hawaii’s senior U.S. senator. In a sit-down interview last week in Honolulu, Schatz explained that Hawaii will first need a massive construction plan, but to accomplish that the state must also change how it thinks about the new construction. Simply put, a new state mindset is needed, says the 52-year-old Democrat, who has risen through Hawaii’s political ranks from political...

In 2024, US Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) helped secure more than $6 billion in federal funding for Hawai‘i as he led efforts to deliver resources to support Maui’s recovery from last year’s fires and advance a range of other priorities for the state. Earlier this month, Schatz announced an estimated $1.6 billion in new funding for Maui’s continued recovery, aimed at building permanent housing for survivors, in addition to almost $500 million to support economic development, small business...

WASHINGTON (Island News) -- U.S. Senator Brian Schatz announced a long-term disaster recovery funding that will provide Maui with a $1.6 million new community development grant. The new Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding is part of more than $12 billion focused on disaster-impacted communities across the nation. The $1.6 billion for Maui will cover economic development, small business loans, and water infrastructure in addition to other things. This funding is...

Donald Trump has transformed the Republican Party on all kinds of issues — trade, foreign policy, immigration. He has challenged, even upended, the old consensus by giving people a very different story about what was wrong in America, about why they were struggling. To be clear, I think most of Trump’s policies and many of his stories are quite different, bad and often false. But to give some credit to the Republicans, they are having these big internal policy debates, and the people coming up...

Hawaii will receive $20 million in federal funds that will go to 17 Native Hawaiian organizations in efforts to restore native ecosystems and plants, and to “enhance food security while incorporating Indigenous knowledge and practices.” The money from the Department of the Interior’s Kapapahuliau Climate Resilience Program was funded through a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act authored by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who chairs the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. “Through the...