Representative Ed Case

Aloha, Friend. Elected office is filled with difficult decisions, some far more so than most. I face two now: further restrictions including vaccinations to address the tragic resurgence of COVID-19; and consideration of two huge federal multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure packages. I want to tell you straight from me what’s happening, what I think and what I’m doing, and ask for your further guidance. COVID-19 Public health reality. COVID-19, especially the highly contagious Delta variant, is resurging across our country. In Hawai’i, our infection rate is skyrocketing while our vaccination rate is lagging. The vast majority of infections and deaths are among those unvaccinated, and the vast majority of “breakthrough” infections of those already vaccinated are from those unvaccinated. This means that those who are not vaccinated pose a far greater risk of infection and death to themselves and others than those who are, especially if they mix in our gathering places whether school, work, travel or social. That is the scientific, public health reality. Public policy reality. What must we do about it? The only real way forward is to accelerate vaccination and, until we get much higher rates, condition participation in high-risk gathering places on vaccination or proof of no infection. While none of us should be forced against our will to get vaccinated, we also have an obligation not to infect others, overload health care facilities and risk our economy and society. As the Secretary of Defense said in announcing that vaccines will soon be required for service in our armed forces, it’s not about you, as they will “protect your unit, your ship and your co-workers.” That is the policy choice reality. Vaccine/testing conditions. Most decisions on whether to require vaccinations or negative tests to go to school or work or other gatherings are being left to state and county governments and the private sector, but I believe those decisions should and must be made. At the federal level, I support the President’s decisions to do so thus far in our federal workforce and armed services, and will further support such conditions on other federal areas like airline travel. If not vaccinated, why not? At the same time, to implement these conditions fairly, vaccines and testing must be widely available and easy to get along with the information to find them. While that’s largely true both nationwide and throughout Hawai’i, and Congress is paying for the vaccines, there are still troubling pockets where they are not easily available, or people do not know how to get them. This survey here especially asks those who haven’t been vaccinated why not, especially so that I can help provide accurate information and improve accessibility. Infrastructure The proposals. Much of our nation’s (and Hawaii’s) physical infrastructure (roads, bridges, harbors, airports, water and sewer systems, public transit, the power grid, etc.) is crumbling for lack of maintenance and reinvestment. At the same time, much of what is often referred to as our social infrastructure, meaning our federal policies and programs to maintain and expand a fair and equitable society, are failing far too many. President Biden submitted two huge proposals to Congress: one his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan for physical infrastructure; and the other his $3.5 trillion American Families Plan for social infrastructure. (For scale, our total federal annual discretionary budget is $1.5 trillion.) The President also proposed that his plans be fully paid for, meaning that they would not be financed by further federal debt, unlike the $5-plus trillion we just borrowed over the past eighteen months for federal COVID emergency assistance. Status. In such a divided Congress, there are deep disagreements, between the parties, within the parties, between the Senate and House and otherwise, with various aspects of the proposals. These include whether we should focus first on physical infrastructure (which enjoys widespread public support) or social infrastructure as well, whether the specific initiatives are the right ones, whether the amounts are too large or small, whether we should borrow the trillions to finance the proposals or pay for them, and what current programs to reduce or taxes and other revenues to increase if we follow President Biden’s pay-for proposal. With the President’s support, the U.S. Senate amazingly surmounted those differences and last Tuesday passed 69-30 a $1 trillion bipartisan physical infrastructure package (which would be our largest infrastructure package ever), mostly paid for. The Senate also passed, 50-49, a budget resolution which sets some ground rules for further consideration of the $3.5 social infrastructure package but allows for up to some $1.8 trillion in additional federal borrowings. Options. In the U.S. House, we now have various options. One is to pass the $1 trillion bipartisan physical infrastructure bill now and send it to the President, who would in all likelihood sign it into law. Another is to change the bill, which would require it to go back to the Senate, then into a joint House-Senate conference (if it passed the Senate), then to the House and Senate again, then to the President. Another is to hold the $1 trillion package and not pass it unless and until the budget resolution or $3.5 trillion package are also passed. While President Biden has not linked the two proposals, House Speaker Pelosi has. My decision. I believe that we should pass the $1 trillion physical infrastructure package immediately and send it to the President without changing it and without linking it to the $3.5 trillion social infrastructure package. Our country desperately needs this reinvestment, which would also provide billions to Hawai’i for our own critical needs. The country widely supports this measure, which is not only about reinvesting in our crumbling infrastructure but also about proving our dysfunctional government can actually work. In a deeply divided Congress, it is virtually impossible to pass such major initiatives, and any changes or delays will likely cause this one to fail. I support much of the $3.5 trillion package, but believe it needs significant refinement to target actual needs, and I am deeply concerned with any further deterioration in our federal finances which are in their worst shape in three generations. I have joined other Democratic colleagues in the position that we will not consider the budget resolution on the $3.5 trillion social infrastructure package unless and until the $1 trillion bipartisan physical infrastructure bill passes the House and is signed into law. While a very difficult decision with which reasonable colleagues and constituents strongly disagree, I believe it is, under the realities we face in Congress, the right one for our country and Hawai’i. I welcome your own thoughts in my survey here .Mahalo for your further consideration and guidance. Please let me know through the contacts below of any other questions or thoughts as well as how we might be of assistance. I wish you and yours only the very best.

Aloha, Friend.

Elected office is filled with difficult decisions, some far more so than most. I face two now: further restrictions including vaccinations to address the tragic resurgence of COVID-19; and consideration of two huge federal multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure packages. I want to tell you straight from me what’s happening, what I think and what I’m doing, and ask for your further guidance.

COVID-19

Public health reality. COVID-19, especially the highly contagious Delta variant, is resurging across our country. In Hawai’i, our infection rate is skyrocketing while our vaccination rate is lagging. The vast majority of infections and deaths are among those unvaccinated, and the vast majority of “breakthrough” infections of those already vaccinated are from those unvaccinated. This means that those who are not vaccinated pose a far greater risk of infection and death to themselves and others than those who are, especially if they mix in our gathering places whether school, work, travel or social. That is the scientific, public health reality.

Public policy reality. What must we do about it? The only real way forward is to accelerate vaccination and, until we get much higher rates, condition participation in high-risk gathering places on vaccination or proof of no infection. While none of us should be forced against our will to get vaccinated, we also have an obligation not to infect others, overload health care facilities and risk our economy and society. As the Secretary of Defense said in announcing that vaccines will soon be required for service in our armed forces, it’s not about you, as they will “protect your unit, your ship and your co-workers.” That is the policy choice reality.

Vaccine/testing conditions. Most decisions on whether to require vaccinations or negative tests to go to school or work or other gatherings are being left to state and county governments and the private sector, but I believe those decisions should and must be made. At the federal level, I support the President’s decisions to do so thus far in our federal workforce and armed services, and will further support such conditions on other federal areas like airline travel.

If not vaccinated, why not? At the same time, to implement these conditions fairly, vaccines and testing must be widely available and easy to get along with the information to find them. While that’s largely true both nationwide and throughout Hawai’i, and Congress is paying for the vaccines, there are still troubling pockets where they are not easily available, or people do not know how to get them. This survey here especially asks those who haven’t been vaccinated why not, especially so that I can help provide accurate information and improve accessibility.

Infrastructure

The proposals. Much of our nation’s (and Hawaii’s) physical infrastructure (roads, bridges, harbors, airports, water and sewer systems, public transit, the power grid, etc.) is crumbling for lack of maintenance and reinvestment. At the same time, much of what is often referred to as our social infrastructure, meaning our federal policies and programs to maintain and expand a fair and equitable society, are failing far too many. President Biden submitted two huge proposals to Congress: one his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan for physical infrastructure; and the other his $3.5 trillion American Families Plan for social infrastructure. (For scale, our total federal annual discretionary budget is $1.5 trillion.) The President also proposed that his plans be fully paid for, meaning that they would not be financed by further federal debt, unlike the $5-plus trillion we just borrowed over the past eighteen months for federal COVID emergency assistance.

Status. In such a divided Congress, there are deep disagreements, between the parties, within the parties, between the Senate and House and otherwise, with various aspects of the proposals. These include whether we should focus first on physical infrastructure (which enjoys widespread public support) or social infrastructure as well, whether the specific initiatives are the right ones, whether the amounts are too large or small, whether we should borrow the trillions to finance the proposals or pay for them, and what current programs to reduce or taxes and other revenues to increase if we follow President Biden’s pay-for proposal. With the President’s support, the U.S. Senate amazingly surmounted those differences and last Tuesday passed 69-30 a $1 trillion bipartisan physical infrastructure package (which would be our largest infrastructure package ever), mostly paid for. The Senate also passed, 50-49, a budget resolution which sets some ground rules for further consideration of the $3.5 social infrastructure package but allows for up to some $1.8 trillion in additional federal borrowings.

Options. In the U.S. House, we now have various options. One is to pass the $1 trillion bipartisan physical infrastructure bill now and send it to the President, who would in all likelihood sign it into law. Another is to change the bill, which would require it to go back to the Senate, then into a joint House-Senate conference (if it passed the Senate), then to the House and Senate again, then to the President. Another is to hold the $1 trillion package and not pass it unless and until the budget resolution or $3.5 trillion package are also passed. While President Biden has not linked the two proposals, House Speaker Pelosi has.

My decision. I believe that we should pass the $1 trillion physical infrastructure package immediately and send it to the President without changing it and without linking it to the $3.5 trillion social infrastructure package. Our country desperately needs this reinvestment, which would also provide billions to Hawai’i for our own critical needs. The country widely supports this measure, which is not only about reinvesting in our crumbling infrastructure but also about proving our dysfunctional government can actually work. In a deeply divided Congress, it is virtually impossible to pass such major initiatives, and any changes or delays will likely cause this one to fail. I support much of the $3.5 trillion package, but believe it needs significant refinement to target actual needs, and I am deeply concerned with any further deterioration in our federal finances which are in their worst shape in three generations.

I have joined other Democratic colleagues in the position that we will not consider the budget resolution on the $3.5 trillion social infrastructure package unless and until the $1 trillion bipartisan physical infrastructure bill passes the House and is signed into law. While a very difficult decision with which reasonable colleagues and constituents strongly disagree, I believe it is, under the realities we face in Congress, the right one for our country and Hawai’i. I welcome your own thoughts in my survey here .

Mahalo for your further consideration and guidance. Please let me know through the contacts below of any other questions or thoughts as well as how we might be of assistance. I wish you and yours only the very best.

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