Press Releases

(Honolulu, HI) – Congressman Ed Case (HI-01) announced today House Appropriations Committee passage of the Fiscal Year (FY) 21 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, with funding to accelerate federal projects for critical improvements to state harbors and protect shorelines from sea level rise.

“This bill makes critical investments in accelerating, improving and addressing Hawai‘i’s aging water infrastructure including our harbors, coastal erosion, and aquatic ecosystem restoration,” said Case.

“By accelerating work on these infrastructure projects, we are also helping Hawai‘i by providing much needed construction jobs to contribute to economic recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Case.

Case serves on the House Committee on Appropriations, which is responsible for allocating federal funds to government agencies, departments and organizations on an annual basis. Each year the Committee must prepare 12 separate bills.

The Committee’s Energy and Water bill funds the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Energy and other related agencies and includes emergency appropriations for COVID 19-related agency operations.

Funding requested by Case for national U.S. Army Corps of Engineers programs utilized for specific Hawai’i projects include:

• $1.68 billion for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.
• $8 million for the Continuing Authorities Program (CAP) Section 107, Small Navigation Improvements.
• $10 million for the Continuing Authorities Program (CAP) Section 206, Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration.
• $5 million for the National Shoreline Management Study.
• $7 million for the Coastal and Deep-Draft Program.
• $10 billion for the general Construction Account.
• $20 million for the Aquatic Plant Control Program.

Specific Hawai‘i facilities as to which Case secured further operations and maintenance funds include Barbers Point Deep Draft Harbor and Hilo Harbor.

Funding requested by Case for national Department of Energy programs of particular interest to Hawai‘i include:

• $65,000,000 for the State Energy Program Grants which the Trump Administration proposed eliminating. This program will allow Hawai‘i to ramp up energy efficiency, renewable energy projects and grid-modernization projects.
• $60 million for the WaterSMART Grants to help fund water conservation and drought projects, which provide resources for better data collection and analysis of water supply and use.
• $435 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) which the Trump Administration proposed eliminating.
• $280 million for the Solar Energy Programs to optimize the mix of renewable energy sources in Hawai‘i.
• $150 million for the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies.
• $285 million for the Building Technologies Office to help reduce energy, water waste and modernize Hawai‘i’s building and industrial facilities.
• $258 million for the Bioenergy Technologies Program to encourage the Department of Energy to continue to address issues regarding biomass and waste. This program is critical in ensuring that Hawai‘i has efficient and cost-effective methods of waste management by funding waste-to energy projects.

“Hawai‘i has led the nation when it comes to clean energy and this measure will ensure that our state can access sufficient federal funding to continue our leadership role by supporting new energy technologies such as reliable and resilient electric grid infrastructure to help our Hawai‘i’s ongoing initiative in achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2045,” said Case.

In total, the draft bill includes $49,607,300 billion in regular appropriations, an increase of $1,264,300,000 above the FY 2020 enacted level. Additionally, the bill includes $43.5 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations for investments in economic recovery.

“This bill also makes critical investments in environmental protection and land conservation, clean air and water to protect our communities’ health, earthquake and volcano warning systems, protecting our public lands and endangered species, tribal communities, and our territories,” said Case.

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