Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, condemned the Trump administration’s wholesale dismantling of American foreign assistance and its abrupt departure from generations of bipartisan American foreign policy consensus. He underscored the various ways the administration’s cuts are costing lives and disrupting work critical to American interests...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) released the following statement after voting for a resolution led by U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) to demand answers on the Trump administration’s compliance with court orders regarding illegal deportations of American citizens and residents as well as more information about El Salvador’s human rights record. The resolution was blocked by Senate Republicans. “President Trump’s disappearing of American residents to Salvadoran prisons without...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, yesterday called for unanimous consent on the Senate floor to adopt a resolution authored by Schatz and U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) that would condemn a luxury airplane gift, valued at $400 million, President Donald Trump announced he will receive from the government of Qatar. Senate Republicans blocked it. “It really should go without saying, but no president should be accepting a $400...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today introduced a resolution in the Senate condemning a luxury airplane gift, valued at $400 million, President Donald Trump announced he will receive from the government of Qatar. According to reports, Trump intends to designate the plane as Air Force One while in office and then transfer it to a foundation for personal use following the end of his term. In addition...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today took to the Senate floor to condemn a luxury airplane gift, valued at $400 million, that President Donald Trump announced he will receive from the government of Qatar. According to reports, Trump intends to designate the plane as Air Force One while in office and then transfer it to a foundation for personal use following the end of his term. Schatz also announced he will be...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today released the following joint statement on reports that President Trump will accept a luxury jet valued at $400 million from the royal family of Qatar. According to reports, Trump intends to designate the plane as Air Force One while in office and then transfer it to a foundation for personal use following the end...

WASHINGTON – More than 26,000 Hawai‘i residents today joined U.S. Senator Brian Schatz’s (D-Hawai‘i) statewide telephone town hall. Senator Schatz heard from constituents, listened to their priorities and concerns, provided updates on his work in the Senate, and took questions on federal funding for Hawai‘i, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, FEMA, and recent actions from the Trump administration, among many others. “To represent Hawai‘i as effectively as I can in the Senate, it’s essential...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) released the following statement on reports that Filipino teachers on Maui were interrogated and held in their home by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “The reported interrogation and efforts to detain Filipino teachers in their home on Maui by ICE agents is outrageous. This is racial profiling and a shameful abuse of power. We are a nation of laws, but the broad ICE raids this week are clearly designed just to instill fear,” said...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawai‘i) and U.S. Representatives Jill Tokuda (D-Hawai‘i) and Ed Case (D-Hawai‘i) today reintroduced bicameral legislation that would help strengthen and protect health care for seniors in Hawai‘i. The Protecting Access To Care in Hawai‘i (PATCH) Act would provide fair Medicare reimbursements to Hawai‘i providers, helping retain and recruit more doctors and protect access to health care for seniors across the state. “As...

WASHINGTON – Following World Press Freedom Day on May 3, U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) this week introduced a bipartisan resolution recognizing growing threats to freedom of the press around the world and reaffirming the vital role of independent journalism in promoting democracy, human rights, and good governance. “A free press is a cornerstone of any healthy democracy – and it’s vital that we protect and defend it, at home and abroad,” said Senator Schatz, a...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement on President Donald Trump’s budget proposal. “The president’s budget proposal is simply that – a proposal.  It’s not going to happen. If enacted, President Trump’s proposed budget cuts would weaken our national security, end critical medical research, and have a terrible impact on Hawai‘i, but Congress holds the purse strings, not the president.  We will not cede...

WASHINGTON – Following reports that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., would radically change testing vaccines by introducing placebo testing, including for well-researched diseases like measles and polio, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) spoke out on the Senate floor, warning that the new move would risk lives and threaten public health. In his remarks, Schatz compared the new HHS plan to the unethical Tuskegee Experiment which...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today released the following statement after President Donald Trump removed former President Joe Biden’s appointees from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, including former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff – less than a week after Holocaust Remembrance Day. “President Trump’s decision to fire members of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council is wrong and deeply disrespectful. This move politicizes Holocaust remembrance and disrespects the victims,...

HONOLULU – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today released the following statement after U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Democratic Whip, announced he would not seek re-election. “For more than four decades, Senator Dick Durbin has been a pillar of leadership, integrity, and unwavering dedication to the people of his home state of Illinois and the nation. A titan of the Senate, he has helped improve the lives of Americans everywhere—expanding health research, protecting children from...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and U.S. Representative Sean Casten (D-Ill.) introduced the Climate Change Financial Risk Act, legislation that directs the Federal Reserve to conduct stress tests on large financial institutions to measure their resilience to climate-related financial risks. “Risk is risk—we should not be treating some risks different from others just because they’re hard to quantify. Federal regulators are legally obligated to ensure a stable and efficient...

HONOLULU – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on the planned reorganization of the U.S. State Department. “Following the illegal and damaging dismantling of USAID, Secretary Marco Rubio’s proposed changes to the State Department would have drastic and wide-ranging implications for key U.S. national interests. On its...

HONOLULU – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today visited the Queen’s Medical Center to discuss the hospital’s federal funding disruptions, growing emergency department pressures, and threats to funding for Hawai‘i’s Medicaid program, known as Med-QUEST, from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. Schatz met with Queen’s leadership, toured facilities, and heard directly about the importance of federal support, as Med-QUEST recipients account for a significant share of Queen’s...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) released the following statement after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to open up the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. “At a time when the climate crisis is threatening our fragile ocean ecosystem and costing us lives and livelihoods every year, President Trump’s response is to gut protections for some of our nation’s most important natural resources, including the Pacific Islands Heritage...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) released the following statement after President Donald Trump and top administration officials refused to comply with a Supreme Court order to help return Kilmar Abrego Garcia who the Justice Department has admitted to mistakenly deporting to El Salvador. “President Donald Trump and Secretary Marco Rubio need to start following the law – now. They are knowingly violating the law by denying people due process and disappearing them to foreign...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, released the following statement on reports that Pete Marocco, who oversaw the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has left the U.S. Department of State. “Pete Marocco’s tenure brought chaos to USAID, reckless and unlawful policy to the State Department, and dismantled long-standing U.S. foreign policy. His actions...