Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Congressman Kaialiʻi Kahele (HI-02) issued the following statement today in response to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation to pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine following reports of six cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot.

HONOLULU, HI – U.S. Congressman Kaialiʻi Kahele (HI-02) issued the following statement today on the passing of Pwo Master Navigator Chad Kālepa Baybayan

HONOLULU –Today, Senators Mazie K. Hirono and Brian Schatz, and Representatives Kaialii Kahele and Ed Case announced their intention to name the Advanced Leeward Outpatient Health Care Access (ALOHA) Project after former Hawaii Senator Daniel Kahikina Akaka – who first spearheaded the project working alongside Hawaii veterans. Earlier today, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it had awarded a lease to Hunt Companies to begin construction on the facility, which is expected to open to veterans in the Fall of 2024.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, April 1st, 2021, Reps. Kai Kahele (HI-02) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-02) introduced their bipartisan VET TEC Enhancement Act of 2021, legislation that would increase the amount authorized to be appropriated for the high technology pilot program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

HILO, HI – Congressman Kaialiʻi Kahele announced that 14 Hawaiʻi Community Health Centers will receive $31,969,250 in American Rescue Plan funds to expand COVID-19 vaccination operations. The awards are part of the American Rescue Plan’s investments to increase access to vaccines in underserved communities.

Washington, D.C. - United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Congressman Kaialiʻi Kahele (D-Hawaii) reintroduced the Remove the Stain Act. The bill would revoke the Medal of Honor from the soldiers who perpetrated the Wounded Knee massacre on December 29, 1890, when U.S. soldiers slaughtered hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children—most of them unarmed—on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Twenty soldiers in the regiment received the Medal of Honor—the highest military decoration—for their actions at Wounded Knee. 

HILO, HI – Congressman Kaialiʻi Kahele announced that 10 airports across Hawaiʻi’s Second Congressional District will receive $26,795,585 from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The grant funds are part of the Coronavirus Relief and Response Supplemental Appropriations.  

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Today, Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Congressman Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii), a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee, announced that the T&I Committee approved a resolution that is the final step for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to award a lease to construct the Advanced Leeward Outpatient Health Care Access (ALOHA) Project. Following years of sustained advocacy from Senator Hirono, the lease cleared a key hurdle in December 2020 when the resolution was approved by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.