In the News

The first time Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) tried to abolish the debt limit, he pleaded with lawmakers to “stop these attempts to govern through threats” that put the economy at risk. That was in 2017, the same year that a Republican revolt brought the United States within weeks of a catastrophic default. But Congress did nothing to change the underlying law that September, nor when he and other Democrats tried again in 2019, and 2021, and just...

Brian Schatz, a Democrat, represents Hawaii in the U.S. Senate; Tom Cotton, a Republican, represents Arkansas; Chris Murphy, a Democrat, represents Connecticut; Katie Boyd Britt, a Republican, represents Alabama. Do you know which social media apps your children are on? Do you understand how those apps might harm them? Few parents, no matter how diligent or tech savvy, can confidently answer “yes” to those questions. This should concern everyone. Kids on social media are vulnerable...

The mental-health crisis facing America's teenagers is motivating an unusual group of senators — two progressive Democrats and a pair of conservative Republicans — to join forces. The Democrats — Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut — and the Republicans — Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama — are all parents of young kids or teenagers. They unveiled legislation recently that limits access to social media...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Katie Britt says she hears about it constantly when she is at home in Alabama — at school track meets, basketball tournaments and on her regular morning walks with friends. And when she was running for the Senate last year, Britt says, “parent after parent” came up to her wanting to discuss the way social media was harming their kids. Britt also navigates the issue in her own home, as the mother of a 13-year-old and a...

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday introduced legislation that aims to protect children from any harmful effects posed by using social media. The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act would set a minimum age of 13 to use social media apps, such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, and would require parental consent for 13- to 17-year-olds. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said earlier this year that 13 is too young to join social media. The bill would ban social media...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz is at the forefront of an effort to ban kids under 13 from having social media accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. On Wednesday, Schatz unveiled new legislation that seeks to regulate who can have access to social media and require tech companies to put strict age restrictions in place to ensure that minors are not creating their own accounts without parental approval. The bill also seeks to block social media companies from...

More than a dozen senators are pressing for the museums and universities that hold the most Native American remains to explain why they’ve failed for decades to return thousands of them to tribes as required by federal law. Members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and other senators singled out for scrutiny the five institutions identified in a recent ProPublica and NBC News investigation as having the largest collections of Indigenous remains — including powerful...

Morning Consult reported Wednesday that Democrat Brian Schatz has the highest approval rating of all U.S. senators — 65%. Just 24% disapprove. Bernie Sanders, the independent of Vermont, was close behind at 64%. Hawaii’s other senator, Democrat Mazie Hirono, ranked as eighth-most popular with a 60% approval rating. Surveys were conducted Jan. 1-March 31 among representative samples of registered voters in each state. Morning Consult is a business intelligence company that...

The United States is in the midst of a severe housing affordability crisis. Eighty percent of U.S. homes are now unaffordable to the average American, meaning that the monthly mortgage payment would eat up more than 30 percent of monthly wages. The number of renters spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent is higher than it has been in decades. Homelessness is at record highs, and high-cost cities have become so expensive that they are driving national migration...

WASHINGTON — Among Democrats, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz is the earmarker-in-chief, at least according to a new analysis from the New York Times. The newspaper ranked lawmakers for their ability to secure federal funds for special projects in their districts through a process known as congressionally directed spending. The rankings found that Schatz, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, requested $530 million in earmarks in the fiscal year 2023 budget bill, which was signed into...

President Joe Biden has signed into law two bills supporting Native American language education that were authored by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii. The first bill signed Thursday by Biden is the Native American Language Resource Center Act, which will establish native language resource centers across the country with the capacity to create grants and offer other forms of support to organizations that perpetuate native languages. The second bill — the Durbin Feeling Native American...

A new law signed by President Joe Biden and co-authored Hawaii US Sen. Brian Schatz puts money into preservation efforts of Japanese internment camps across the US. The Norman Y. Mineta Japanese American Confinement Education Act re-establishes funding to the Japanese American Confinement Sites Program (JACS) to promote education and awareness of one of the darkest periods for Japanese American citizens in history. One of those sites that will receive more money for conservation include the...

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) was sworn in to a new term today by Vice President Kamala Harris. Schatz won reelection to a second full term in November, garnering more than 71% of the vote – the largest margin of victory by any Senate candidate in 2022. Schatz has served for a decade in the Senate, first joining in 2012 before winning a special election in 2014. He then won his first full term in 2016. “It has been the honor of my life to represent the great state of Hawai‘i...

Hawaii U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono on Thursday announced that they had collectively secured nearly $1 billion in federal funding for a wide range of Hawaii projects. Schatz said the more than $500 million he secured in so-called earmarks will increase federal funding to shut down Red Hill and “strengthen housing,” health care and education, among other programs and projects. Hirono separately announced that she had secured nearly $450 million in earmarks for nonprofits...

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure Thursday that would bolster Native American language schools and programs with coordinated support. The bipartisan Native American Language Resource Center Act, authored by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, now heads to President Joe Biden for final approval. “As we have seen in Hawaii, native speaker-led language programs have proven that culturally based instruction is key to revitalizing and maintaining indigenous knowledge and...

Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino announced today that the County of Maui will receive $15.3 million in congressionally directed spending thanks to the determination of US Senator Brian Schatz, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.   Congress is expected to pass the 2023 Appropriations Bill this week. With President Biden’ signature, the following County projects will receive federal funding: Hālau of...

On the list of unfinished business of the departing Democratic-controlled Congress is reforming an often-overlooked keystone of U.S. democracy — the census. Democratic lawmakers were among the most prominent critics of the years of census interference by former President Donald Trump's administration. The meddling laid bare many of the vulnerabilities facing the national tally. Those numbers are used to determine each state's share of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, redraw...

Honolulu’s rail project will be receiving nearly $64 million in additional funding from the federal government. Sen. Brian Schatz, who chairs the Senate’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, announced the latest injection of funds Tuesday morning. The $63.8 million funding will help the Honolulu Rail Transit Project offset the cost of inflation, according to Schatz’s office. The money is also separate from the hundreds of millions...

Red Hill continues to be an issue with many residents impacted by multiple recent leaks of jet fuel and aqueous film forming foam. Located above an aquifer, these leaks have raised concerns for local leaders and residents as the Navy attempts to fix the problem. Sen. Brian Schatz announced today, Dec. 20, that he was able to secure $1 billion in funding in the annual appropriations bill to permanently shut down the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility. “This is new federal funding to drain...

Congressional leaders released a bipartisan government funding bill early Tuesday that includes a rewrite of federal election laws aimed at preventing another Jan. 6-style attack and choking off avenues for future candidates to steal elections. They expect to pass the bill in the coming days to avoid a government shutdown slated to begin this weekend. It is the product of lengthy negotiations between the two parties and has President Joe Biden's support. The Senate voted 70 to 25...