LIHU‘E — The remaining three members of Hawai‘i’s congressional delegation were sworn in on Thursday in Washington, D.C., sealing a renovation that started two years ago, with the election of U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa to the House. Sen. Brian Schatz
LIHU‘E — The remaining three members of Hawai‘i’s congressional delegation were sworn in on Thursday in Washington, D.C., sealing a renovation that started two years ago, with the election of U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa to the House. Sen. Brian Schatz was sworn in last week.
Hanabusa and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard were sworn in to the House, and Sen. Mazie Hirono was sworn in to the Senate. Hirono left behind six years at the House for a bid to replace retiring Sen. Daniel Akaka. Gabbard was elected to Hirono’s old House seat. Schatz was appointed to occupy the Senate seat void left by the recent death of Sen. Daniel Inouye.
“It is a great honor to begin my second term and to welcome my new colleague, Tulsi Gabbard, to the House of Representatives,” Hanabusa said Thursday after being sworn in. “It’s a bittersweet day for me, though, knowing that for the first time in our state’s history, Congress is opening without Sen. Inouye to represent us. I can only hope to aspire to his model of service to Hawai‘i’s people, and to represent the true aloha that Sen. Akaka personified for so many years.”
Inouye died Dec. 17 after nearly 50 years in the Senate, and Akaka retired Thursday after 22 years in the Senate.
“Today is about the people of Hawai‘i, and I am honored to serve as a strong voice for our state in the U.S. Senate,” Hirono said in a statement after being sworn in. “Now more than ever, we need leaders in Washington who are focused on helping the people of our state and country.”
“I feel great honor and privilege to serve the people of Hawai’i in Congress,” Gabbard said Wednesday, the day before being sworn in.
Gabbard, at 31 years old, is the youngest of Hawai‘i’s delegation in the nation’s capital. Her resume includes a state House term, a Honolulu City Council seat, legislative work for Akaka and two military tours in the Middle East, all in the last 10 years.
She, along with Hanabusa, Schatz and Hirono, will have the difficult task of ensuring that Hawai‘i’s economy grows despite a looming scenario in the upcoming months, when some of the fiscal cliff deal compromises start falling like dominoes.
Last week, during Inouye’s memorial services on Kaua‘i, state Rep. Derek Kawakami affectionately said the late U.S. senator had a way of making people feel important.
Inouye also had a way, better than anyone else, of appropriating federal money for Hawai‘i.
With Inouye’s death, coupled with a moratorium on federal earmarks, securing federal funds to Hawai‘i will be anything but easy.
On Dec. 26, minutes after being appointed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie to replace Inouye, Schatz said one of his main priorities would be to identify federal funds coming to Hawai‘i and make sure to stabilize those funds as much as possible.
Hirono said in her statement Thursday that it has been a privilege to serve with Inouye and Akaka, and she looks forward to building on the strong foundations both senators have laid.
“I will continue to work closely with Hawai‘i’s delegation to ensure that the state’s interests are represented on the national level,” Hirono said. “The people of Hawai‘i have put their faith and trust in me, and I will not let them down.”
Gabbard steps into Congress as a superstar candidate who climbed 65 points (from a 45-point deficit in the polls to a 20 percent lead in the actual election) to pull the rug from under shoe-in candidate Mufi Hannemann in the 2012 primary elections.
“The great responsibility of the task that lies ahead weighs heavily upon my heart, as I know there are many Hawai‘i families who are still struggling,” Gabbard said.
“I am focused, disciplined, and ready to get to work as we tackle the many challenges facing our nation, and work towards finding and supporting opportunities for Hawai‘i to thrive.”
