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The next round of COVID-19 related federal stimulus could be enough to prevent layoffs and furloughs of Hawaii public workers, keep island businesses afloat and prevent renters and homeowners from losing their homes while extending unemployment benefits, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii online video program Wednesday.
Schatz hopes both chambers of Congress pass a $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package by mid-March that he hopes will help procure more COVID-19 vaccine and get students back in school after spring back — while working through school employee unions’ collective bargaining agreements.
But there are limits. Schatz said states like Hawaii that have antiquated unemployment insurance computer systems that are delaying distribution of unemployment benefits should not expect a quick fix.
“Improving their infrastructure, frankly, isn’t going to work in time to sort of fix this problem,” Schatz said. “So I don’t want to lead anyone to believe that we’re going to pass a bill and then we’re going to be able to deploy money and fix the infrastructure.”
As the new chairman of the Senate subcommittee on appropriations that has jurisdiction over the U.S. departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, Schatz said, “we can deal with housing and homelessness there and there’s also transportation and transit issues — something I can sink my teeth into.”
When it comes to the city’s troubled rail project, Schatz said, “I’m going to be as helpful as I possibly can as it relates to making the rail project work, but they are facing a roughly $2 billion structural deficit. … I ain’t going to be able to find $2 billion.”
Schatz plans to give Mayor Rick Blangiardi and Lori Kahikina, the interim CEO and executive director for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, time to develop a new plan.
He said that both Blangiardi and Kahikina “want to be as straightforward as possible about the real situation fiscally speaking and go to the FTA (Federal Transit Administration) and go to the community and say, ‘Here’s where we’re really at’ because I think people are just sick of being told a sort of fantastical story about how there’s some magical solution to this problem. We are where we are because lots of people have told overly optimistic stories.”
Unlike the first two federal relief packages in 2020 under the Trump administration, Schatz said the new federal aid package from President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to directly fund county and state services, which Democrats have wanted.
Locally, Schatz said, the new stimulus will provide “money for state government to be able to plug the budget hole. They’ve been delivering services, but they just don’t have the revenue because tourism has taken a nosedive.”
The stimulus is also aimed at the biggest investment in native communities ever, while providing more COVID-19 vaccine, helping schools and providing a new round of rent and mortgage relief.
By helping county and state governments directly, Schatz said, the federal funds “could be enough to prevent all layoffs and furloughs. … If our collective objective is to simply survive this moment until we have enough vaccinations and enough herd immunity that we can get our lives back and our economy back, I think it’s going to be enough … to prevent the layoff of public workers or the furloughing of public workers. This is my No. 1 priority.”
Asked about former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment and calls for further investigation into Trump’s role in the deadly Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, Schatz said it’s appropriate for Congress to create a 9/11-style commission, but Democrats won control of the Senate based on their promise to deal with COVID- 19 and its economic toll on the local and U.S. economies.
“People believed that Democrats were more focused on solving the COVID crisis economically and in terms of public health than Republicans,” Schatz said. “So now we have to deliver on that. Our next major goal has to be to actually deliver COVID relief for the people of Hawaii.”
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