Aloha Friend: My great D.C. and Honolulu staffs and I wish you and yours and the communities we are both privileged to represent the very best for 2026. And I extend my sincere gratitude to you and all of our O‘ahu Neighborhood Board members for our ongoing partnership and for faithfully discharging your responsibilities through difficult times. As your U.S. Representative for Hawaii’s First Congressional District (Honolulu from Makapu’u to Mililani and Kapolei), I will continue to listen to and learn from you as part of my own responsibilities to help lead our country, help our Hawai‘i, and help you and our constituents.  As a critical part of my effort, I’m beginning ‘26 by checking in with you and inviting your Board and community to one of six more of my Talk Story with Congressman Case community meetings the week of January 26th.  Details can be found on my web site at https://case.house.gov/.  For a quick review of some of my recent activities: Here is my year-end Congressional Report highlighting some of my 2025 efforts and looking ahead to ‘26: https://tinyurl.com/casenewsletter. Here is a short slideshow of my Year in Pictures: https://tinyurl.com/caseslideshow. Here is a short video highlighting my Constituent Services: https://tinyurl.com/caseservices. There is much more on my website at case.house.gov. Or, please email me at ed.case@mail.house.gov or call me at (808) 650-6688.Here is a summary some other recent activities:The Cost Of Living We Americans may disagree on many issues, but virtually all of us agree that our cost of living is unacceptably high and getting worse. I continue to work hard to improve Hawaii’s economy, jobs and family incomes while also reducing costs. My efforts are detailed on my website at https://case.house.gov/, but I also summarized some in my recent e-newsletter here and especially ask for your guidance. My U.S. House Appropriations Committee I’m continuing into my eighth year of seniority and experience on our exclusive Appropriations Committee, responsible for funding our federal government. While there is still much work to do on my Appropriations Committee for our current fiscal year and we’re already working hard on funding next year, I succeeded in including many provisions in our measures of benefit to our Hawai‘i (see here for summaries).  Service Academy Nominations I nominated 30 applicants from 16 schools throughout my Urban Honolulu Congressional district to four of our nation’s service academies: the U.S. Military Academy (West Point/Army); U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis/Navy); U.S. Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs/Air Force) and U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point). Go to my website here to see who I nominated for the incoming Class of 2026.App Challenge Winners I also recently announced the 2025 winners of my annual Congressional App Challenge, at a reception held at the Entrepreneurs Sandbox in Kaka‘ako. The Challenge is an official national initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, in which Members of Congress host annual contests in their districts for middle and high school students. For a summary on the winning apps, go to my web site here. I truly look forward to continuing to work together to ensure that our community’s voices are heard and concerns are met by our federal government wherever and however possible. Please call my district office in Honolulu at 650-6688 to assist you or the constituents we serve.