May 21, 2024

Aloha, Friend.

With less than six months to November’s general elections, Capitol Hill is well into the hardest portion of any two-year Congress as the pressure and consequence of the elections set in, the parties jockey for political advantage and the actual legislative days in the current 118th Congress shorten. Dysfunction and polarization amplify, meaningless bills designed for specific political use and going nowhere clutter up votes, more silly fights break out and more stupid things are said.

Serious Legislating Critical. None of this is serious legislating, and yet serious legislating is what we sorely need to address the challenges we face. How do we meet the challenge of an aligned Russia and the People’s Republic of China. Keep our economy and jobs advancing and revitalize our infrastructure. Maintain Social Security and strengthen health care, education and our social safety net. Address climate change and preserve our natural resources. Bring down inflation and the cost of living and expand housing opportunities. Reform immigration. And much more, all without crashing our federal budget.

Possible To Achieve With Focus. These are all steep challenges, but we can address them by looking past the noise and focusing on opportunities and solutions. We have examples this year, including bipartisan action to overcome division and keep our federal government open and funded, help our friends and allies around the world, and upgrade our aviation network, and there are more opportunities upcoming in areas like national defense, agriculture, and more.

My Three-Part Mission. My own focus remains on what is achievable and how to achieve it in each of the three parts of my core mission: (1) help our country; (2) help our Hawai‘i; and (3) help my constituents.

Country. For our country, my main responsibility remains my service on our U.S. House Appropriations Committee, responsible for federal funding. This work touches every area of our federal government, and today we begin two months of our most intense committee work of the year by “marking up” (finalizing) the twelve separate bills that make up our Fiscal Year 2025 federal budget.

Congressman Case in Appropriations questioning the Secretary of Homeland Security on assuring housing for Maui wildfire victims

Hawai‘i. For our Hawai‘i, I remain focused on funding a range of federal programs that help us specifically, from the crises of Red Hill and Maui to virtually every aspect of state and county government, UH and other educational institutions, non-profits and more. I also continue to push for the maximum use by Hawai‘i of our landmark multi-trillion infrastructure revitalization laws from the last Congress, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“IIJA”, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) and the Inflation Reduction Act. At last count, the IIJA alone has targeted over $2.7 billion to Hawai‘i to upgrade our crumbling infrastructure (see Hawaii-IIJA-State-Fact-Sheet.pdf).

Congressman Case with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg touring federally-funded infrastructure projects in Honolulu

Constituents. For those I serve, my office continues to assist with individual concerns wherever and however we can, from delayed tax refunds and immigration case status to veterans benefits and more. In one of the most gratifying outcomes recently, we assisted a constituent in obtaining World War II service records for five local Military Intelligence Service linguists who were killed in a plane crash in the closing days of the war; as a result, they were all awarded posthumous Purple Hearts in a ceremony at Pearl Harbor.

Five families of WWII Hawai‘i servicemen posthumously awarded the Purple Heart

Upcoming Events June 7th and 10th. None of this is possible without staying in close touch with you. To that end, here are two more live events I’m hosting:

1. June 7th Live Webinar On Artificial Intelligence. Many of you have asked me for more information on AI: what is it; how will it affect us; what are our policy choices to maximize its opportunities and minimize its risks? In response, I’m hosting a special live webinar on Friday, June 7th starting at 9 AM Hawai‘i Time, with special guest Austin Bonner, the Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer for Policy, of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Join us on my Facebook page @ RepEdCase or on https://case.house.gov/events/. If you have questions you want us to address, email ed.case@mail.house.gov.
2. June 10th Live Tele-Talk Story. Following up on my five open community meetings across my district in January, it’s time for me to Talk Story with you again on Monday, June 10th at 6 PM Hawai‘i Time. I’ll report further on my activities in Congress, listen to your concerns, and answer your questions. For more information, please visit: https://case.house.gov/events/ or https://case.house.gov/live/.
   
   
   

As always, I deeply appreciate your consideration and assistance as we all work to find the best way forward for our country and Hawai‘i. For more information on my efforts, and how we can help you, please visit my website at https://case.house.gov/. If I can help you and yours with your own questions and needs, email us at ed.case@mail.house.gov, or call us at (808) 650-6688.