Skip to content

HIRONO RETURNS TO HAWAII, LISTENS TO ORGANIZATIONS AND FAMILIES IMPACTED BY GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Visits Included Meeting With Military Families, DREAM Act Students And Advocates

Honolulu, HI – After voting to end the government shutdown and pay our nation’s bills, Senator Mazie K. Hirono returned to Hawaii to hear firsthand how local residents and organizations were impacted by the 16-day debacle. Hirono also focused on comprehensive immigration reform – a major upcoming priority outlined by President Obama – and heard from DREAM Act students, who were brought to the United States as children.

“Throughout the government shutdown, I strongly believed the most compelling voices were those of real people hurt by this manufactured crisis. I tried to share on the Senate floor some of the many stories of hardship people in Hawaii told me through calls and emails,” Hirono said. “Coming home to meet with my constituents underscored yet again how both the government shutdown and the continued sequestration cuts hurt real people. I heard from military families who saw their grocery bills skyrocket during the shutdown and DREAM Act students whose ambitions are being sidelined by Congressional inaction. We need to focus on what the majority of Americans elected us to do – grow the economy, create good jobs and strengthen the middle class.”

See below some highlights from Hirono’s Hawaii trip.

Hirono listened as service members at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam commissary shared how the closure of all Department of Defense commissaries in Hawaii during the shutdown impacted their families. Military families reported a 45% increase in grocery expenses for the month of October. Local vendors lost as much as $400,000 in one week and saw experienced employees leave over a lack of job security.

Hirono held a roundtable with Pearl Harbor Visitor Center and USS Arizona employees, many of whom were furloughed during the shutdown. The USS Arizona Memorial is a top visitor attraction, with 3,000-4,000 visitors a day. During the shutdown about 70,000 visitors were turned away from the historic site, resulting in more than $2 million lost in total economic activity.

Hirono listened to representatives from Goodwill Industries Hawaii, the Hawaii Association of Nonprofit Organizations, Catholic Charities of Hawaii and Child & Family Services of Hawaii as they shared their experiences on how they coped with the 16-day government shutdown. Non-profit organizations faced great uncertainty as critical federal grant funding was immediately cut off. The organizations also noted how the massive cuts from sequestration continue to threaten their ability to provide service to communities.


Hirono listened to the stories of more than a dozen Hawaii DREAMers, students who were brought to the United States as children, and encouraged the group to keep up the hard work and to continue to connect, network and forge a strong, unified voice for Hawaii during the ongoing immigration reform debate. The students explained that despite growing up in America, as what they always believed to be Americans, their current legal status doesn’t allow them to reach their full potential socially and economically.