Speeches & Testimony

Aloha, and thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). I’d like to highlight for your consideration and action some specific national security challenges regarding my home state of Hawai‘i and the broader IndoPacific. The Indo-Pacific, of course, is the frontline of our generation pacing challenge led by the… Read more »

Chairman Graves, Ranking Member Larsen, and Members of the Committee: Mahalo for the opportunity to share my priorities for matters under your Committee’s jurisdiction for the 119th Congress. In particular, I ask for your continued support of the U.S. Coast Guard.  My home state of Hawai‘i relies heavily on and has benefited greatly from the presence of the Coast Guard. We… Read more »

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce legislation to ensure that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) fully supports our small businesses establish and maintain employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). ESOPs offer a powerful way to ensure employees become stakeholders and help run the business they've built. This wealth-generating and retirement plan approach creates a more… Read more »

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge support for my Indigenous Diplomacy and Engagement Act to ensure that our foreign affairs fully encompass and incorporate the independent interconnectedness of our world's indigenous peoples. The estimated 476 million indigenous peoples spread across all parts of our world are bound together by a common heritage, common wisdom and common challenges… Read more »

I join my colleagues in condemning what can only be seen as sheer desertion--yes, I used the word ``desertion''--of Ukraine by this President, and I deeply regret, at least to date, by my Republican colleagues in Congress. The dictator of Russia, as has already been pointed out, has not seen a better day at least since the successful death of Alexei Navalny. Let's be clear. Putin… Read more »

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to invite my House colleagues to join Congressman Joe Neguse of Colorado and me in recognizing the critical importance of the native plants of our country by cosponsoring our resolution designating the month of April as Native Plant Month. Native plants are not just a vital part of our natural landscape; they are integral to the environmental health of our… Read more »

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge support for my Saving Natural Ecosystems and Marine Organisms (NEMO) Act to protect the ornamental reef species living in the fragile and invaluable ecosystems of our world's endangered coral reefs. Our oceans, teeming with life and rich biodiversity, depend on the health of coral reefs, some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth. Nearly… Read more »

Mr. Speaker: I rise to focus attention on one of our most pressing crises: our rapidly deteriorating federal budget, crippled by unsustainable annual deficits and accelerating overall debt. While most prefer to deny or explain it away, we all recognize it, and we all must address it.  Our federal budget operates on principles no different from those of a business or family… Read more »

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my Hawaii Native Species Conservation and Recovery Act, a critical piece of legislation to protect and preserve the unique and irreplaceable native plant and animal species of our precious and endangered Hawaii. I am introducing this bill in conjunction with my Hawaii colleague, Senator Brian Schatz. Our Hawaii is one of the most biologically… Read more »

Mr. Speaker: Today I again introduce three bills to end over a century of federally-imposed monopolistic closed market domestic cargo shipping to and from my isolated home state of Hawai‘i and the other island and separated jurisdictions of our country not part of the contiguous 48 United States. In doing so, we seek to break the stranglehold on the peoples and economies of our exposed… Read more »