Case Contracts Covid; Will Not Join U.S. House Speaker-Led Delegation To Maui Today To Review Wildfire Tragedy And Disaster Response
Honolulu, HI,
September 2, 2023
(Honolulu, HI) – U.S. Representative Ed Case (Hawai‘i -1st), who was scheduled to join a U.S. House of Representatives member delegation to Maui today led by Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (California-20th), tested positive for COVID-19 this morning and will not attend. The delegation, which includes U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce (Ohio-14th), Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security with oversight and funding responsibility for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Coast Guard and on which Case also serves, will review the Lahaina devastation as well as recovery and assistance efforts and meet with survivors. Case is a member of the subcommittee and invited Joyce. The delegation will view the devastation of Lahaina by air and ground, meet with survivors, and review the federal and other responses. Its trip comes as the President has just asked Congress to increase emergency aid to FEMA by $4 billion in the Fiscal Year 2023 supplemental appropriations bill, which Congress is taking up when it returns to Washington, D.C. later this month. “Our delegation’s goal with our congressional colleagues has been to invite as many of them as we can to come to Maui and see and feel the devastation and recovery challenges for themselves,” said Case. “When you do that, it’s impossible to treat this disaster as a distant event and impossible to ignore the compelling life-and-death needs of our community which must be addressed fully by our federal government.” Hawai‘i will be represented on the delegation by Case’s colleague, Rep. Jill Tokuda (Hawai‘i-2nd), Governor Josh Green and Mayor Richard Bissen will also join portions to brief Members on specific needs and issues. Case, who to his knowledge has not contracted COVID-19 previously, is isolating at home under standard COVID protocols and will continue working on the disasters and his other congressional business as he can. He took the opportunity to highlight that COVID-19 remains a serious public health concern throughout Hawai’i and the country. “While we’ve come a long way through this pandemic, COVID-19 infection rates are climbing. We need to utilize the proven tools to reverse this latest trend, including CDC safety protocols, testing and vaccines.” ###
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