Ka`u News Briefs, Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016

State Rep. Clift Tsuji, a friend to Kaʻū Coffee farmers and other local agriculturalists, died unexpectedly yesterday. Photo from Big island Video News

STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MEMBER CLIFT TSUJI DIED YESTERDAY. Tsuji, 75, chaired the House Agriculture Committee. While he represented Keaukaha, Hilo, Panaewa, and Waiakea, he supported numerous aspects of Kaʻū agriculture. Tsuji was a keynote speaker at the Kaʻū Farm Bureau annual meeting in 2012. In the same year, he proposed funding for dogs to be trained to sniff out invasive species coming to Hawaiʻi in air and ocean shipments.

Federal money funded during Republican and Democratic presidencies and Congresses helped increase conservation of large swaths of Kaʻū land, such as Kahuku Unit of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.   NPS Photo by Jessica Ferracane

HAWAIʻI UNDER TRUMP: U.S. Sen. “Dan Inouye is dead, Barack Obama is on his way out and Donald Trump will be our next president.” That’s how Civil Beat reporter Nick Grube introduced his story yesterday on potential political clout for Hawaiʻi under a Donald Trump presidency.
    “Add to that a Republican-controlled House and Senate and things sure don’t look good for Hawaiʻi’s left-leaning congressional delegation,” Grube writes.
     He quotes Colin Moore, a University of Hawaiʻi political science professor and director of the school’s Public Policy Center, who said: “I don’t think Hawaiʻi can expect any favors from the federal government anytime soon. We have a liberal, junior delegation that will be in Congress with a Republican president and a Republican Congress. They’re not going to have a lot of influence.
     “Hawaiʻi’s congressional clout has been fading ever since Inouye’s death in December 2012. Inouye was the most senior member of the U.S. Senate when he died, and was chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, which dishes out federal dollars,” Grube reminds the readers.

The new Kaʻū District Gym & Shelter received federal construction funding for its role as a regional disaster shelter. Photo by Julia Neal

     In remote Kaʻū however, under both Republican and Democratic presidencies and U.S. Congresses, millions of dollars from the federal government increased the size of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park by a third and helped purchase coastal lands to place in the stewardship of the County of Hawaiʻi and community groups. Sen. Mazie Hirono continues to reach across the aisle, successfully advocating for preservation of lands around the Great Crack and Pohue Bay.
      Offshore to the north, the signature of Pres. George W. Bush established Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Under Barack Obama, its size increased, making it the world’s second largest protected area.
    The new Kaʻū District Gym & Shelter received federal funding. Highways and roads throughout Kaʻū are improved with federal money.
    The jobs of many scientists at the National Park, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and the weather station on Mauna Loa are
dependent on federal funding. The weather station, NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory, located at 3,392 meters above sea level (11,129 feet), was one of the first places on the planet to register climate changes that led to identifying global warming. However, President-elect Trump has questioned whether climate change and global warming are real.

Federally funded Mauna Loa Observatory, in Ka`u, recorded the evidence of climate change and global warming. Photo from NOAA

     The Civil Beat writer declares that “it’s a new world under President-elect Trump, who doesn’t have many connections to the island outside of having his name stamped on a 38-story luxury hotel and condominium building in Waikīkī.”
    Grube points out that “Obama’s presidency brought additional standing to the Aloha State, however, if only because he’s from here and has a better understanding of Hawaiʻi’s issues than many politicians in Washington. Under his administration, the U.S. Department of Interior laid out a pathway for government-to-government relations with Native Hawaiians and quadrupled the size of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Honolulu also hosted the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which brought global attention to the islands as Obama laid out his vision for a U.S. pivot to Asia.”
     Grube notes that Trump “claimed to believe, until recently, that Obama had lied about being born in Hawaiʻi."
     Grube does write that Trump appears to be softening on some campaign promises like “deporting millions of undocumented workers, dismantling Obamacare, revamping America’s infrastructure and building a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border and making our southern neighbor pay for it.”

Coastal lands from Honuʻapo to Punaluʻu are in public stewardship with the help of federal government funding. Photo by Julia Neal

    He concludes, however, that “there seems to be little common ground between Trump and deep-blue, multicultural Hawaiʻi, where Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won 61 percent of the vote compared to Trump’s 29 percent.”
     One area of possible federal funding stability that Grube thinks likely is the military: “One thing Hawaiʻi has going for it is its geographical importance to the U.S. military. That means federal dollars should continue to flow, especially if Trump follows through on his promises to boost military spending.” See more at www.civilbeat.org.