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A $1.3 trillion government spending bill will add millions in funding for Hawaii in an appropriations package approved by Congress that is a rebuke to spending cuts sought by President Donald Trump.
“With this bipartisan deal, Hawaii will receive a sizable increase in federal funding,” U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said during a conference call with reporters Thursday morning. “In fact, this is the best appropriations bill by far for Hawaii that I’ve seen since I got to the United States Senate.”
Schatz, who became a member of the Senate in 2012, said the bill will create jobs and help veterans, health care, Native Hawaiians, conservation, the University of Hawaii, housing, transportation and aviation.
| HELP FOR HAWAII
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said funding will include:
>> Highways and transportation: $177.4 million, a $3.5 million increase from last year. The estimated funding is distributed from the Highway Trust Fund to Hawaii for highway maintenance and new construction of bridges, roads and bike and pedestrian paths.
>> Bus and transit: $7.6 million, a $2.6 million increase from last year. The funding is distributed among the state and counties for the operation and capital costs associated with the public transit systems, including the Maui Bus, TheBus, Kauai Bus, Hele-On Bus and TheHandi-Van fleets.
>> Clean-energy research for the military: $25 million, a $5 million increase from last year. This funding supports the Navy’s alternative- energy research programs, including those in Hawaii.
>> Hakalau forest and Haleakala conservation: $13 million, an increase of about $800,000 for Hawaii projects. The bill includes $7 million for Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge and $6 million for Haleakala National Park.
>> Military construction: $317 million, a $119 million increase from last year. It includes $90 million for Increment 3 of the Army’s command and control facility at Fort Shafter.
>> Tsunami program: $31.6 million nationwide. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Tsunami Program provides funding to coastal states. Funding includes $12.2 million for tsunami monitoring, $13.4 million for forecasts and $6 million for a grant program. Hawaii relies on all three, Schatz said.
>> Endangered Hawaiian monk seals and sea turtles protection: $8 million.
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The House passed the bill Thursday, and the Senate followed suit later in the day Hawaii time, likely averting a government shutdown at midnight tonight. Schatz made the comments with the expectation the Senate would pass the appropriation. The president is expected to sign the measure.
“I’m really thrilled with this bill,” said Schatz, D-Hawaii.
“It is very encouraging that my colleagues came together in a bipartisan fashion to appropriate more than $2.8 million in funding for this grant program that helps ensure we never forget that more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were arrested and imprisoned during World War II for their ancestry, not because they broke the laws of the United States,” said Congresswoman Hanabusa. “The Secretary’s inaccurate insensitivities aside, the larger issue is that this administration ignored one of the darkest moments in American history by defunding the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program. Thankfully, my colleagues did not.”
Affordable-housing efforts will get $41.4 million — a $5.8 million increase from last year. The estimate supports the HOME Investment Partnership program, which provides resources to help communities build and maintain affordable housing, Schatz said. It also supports the Community Development Block Grant Program, the Supportive Housing for Persons With Disabilities Program, the Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Homeless Assistance grant programs.
Japanese American Confinement Sites including Honouliuli National Monument will receive $2.9 million nationwide — despite Trump’s proposed funding elimination, Schatz noted. The confinement sites program “got fully funded nationwide, and Honouliuli really is the main one that needs funding in the short run,” Schatz said.
Veterans Affairs is in line to get $81.5 billion nationwide, a $7 billion increase from last year. Schatz said in a release that the amount will help fund the construction of new facilities including a new 120-bed state extended-care facility in Honolulu.
The bill funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year through Sept. 30. News outlet Reuters said that with tax cuts the federal budget deficit could top $800 billion this fiscal year.
U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, said the 2,232-page omnibus bill is “Christmas in March” for liberals and special-interest groups. The bill includes $1.6 billion toward a wall on the border with Mexico.
“Got $1.6 billion to start wall on southern border, rest will be forthcoming. Most importantly, got $700 billion to rebuild our military,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
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