Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) led 24 of their Senate colleagues in calling for increased funding in Fiscal Year 2021 for the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program (PHEP) and the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP), which enable hospitals and public health departments to prepare to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the United States confronts a growing blood shortage brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and a group of their colleagues expressed concern about the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discriminatory...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) successfully secured debt relief for Hawaii small businesses in the third coronavirus recovery package. The package includes provisions from the Small Business Debt Relief Act, which Senator Hirono introduced last week with Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) to temporarily...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) voted in favor of H.R. 748 – the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. This wide-ranging legislation will inject $2 trillion into boosting funding to our medical system, providing economic support to workers, small businesses, and state and local...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) announced today that she successfully secured a major expansion of unemployment assistance in the third emergency coronavirus stimulus package. The package, which is the product of intense bipartisan negotiations, includes Senator Hirono’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Act –...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar, (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) introduced the Disaster and Emergency Pricing Abuse Prevention Act, a bill that would prevent price gouging on essential services or goods during catastrophes. The bill would prohibit the sale of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) joined Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) to introduce legislation that would expedite the full use of the Defense Production Act to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation would require President Trump to immediately begin a series of measures to secure urgently needed medical supplies,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) joined her Senate colleagues on a letter led by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Bob Casey (D-Penn.), urging the Administration to help ensure that domestic violence victims and survivors receive the resources they need during the COVID-19 pandemic....

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, on the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) enactment, Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) called on the Trump Administration to abandon its efforts to repeal the law. Last week, Senator Hirono joined Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and 18 of their colleagues in urging President Trump to forgo his...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) released the following statement on Mitch McConnell’s coronavirus bill: “Governors across the country are having to step up in the absence of meaningful action from the Trump Administration in combating the coronavirus. This is especially difficult because states do not...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) joined her Democratic colleagues on the Small Business Committee to introduce the COVID-19 RELIEF for Small Businesses Act, a comprehensive proposal to provide relief for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposal enhances existing tools available to the Small...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), a member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, announced today that the Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved an economic disaster declaration for the state of Hawaii due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With this disaster declaration, Hawaii businesses...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) released the following statement after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that Tax Day would move from April 15 to July 15 for businesses and taxpayers:  “As Americans continue to confront the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the last thing they need to worry about is the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, and her colleagues introduced the Natural Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act of 2020. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee with oversight jurisdiction over...

Today, Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) issued the following statement after voting in favor of the Families First Coronavirus Act that passed the U.S. Senate 90-8: “While this legislation provides free coronavirus testing, expands paid leave, enhances unemployment benefits, and increases food assistance, we will need to do much more to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and 16 of her Senate colleagues wrote to Vice President Pence and Assistant Secretary of Health Brett Giroir, the Trump Administration’s new COVID-19 head of diagnostic efforts, demanding an explanation of the Administration’s unmitigated failure to produce sufficient test...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and 26 of her colleagues called on President Trump to issue an executive order to direct all federal agencies to maximize telework capabilities.  This call comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) promotes social distancing and suggests minimizing large...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) joined 19 of her Senate colleagues to urge the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to extend the April 15, 2020 filing deadline for federal individual income taxes so that taxpayers will have additional flexibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a senior member of...

WASHINGTON, DC – Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) led 23 Senate Democrats in urging the Trump Administration to create a special enrollment period to allow uninsured Americans to purchase health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Over 80 million Americans are either uninsured or...

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Todd Young (R-Ind.), and Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and U.S. Representatives Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), John Rutherford (R-Fla.), and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) introduced the Coronavirus Worker Relief Act. The new...