Rep. Tokuda shares top priorities for 2025
HONOLULU (KHON2) – The President, new administration, and lawmakers are wasting no time with the start of the 119th Congress and Congresswoman Jill Tokuda shared that she's celebrating the positives with a passing of one of her bills at the House.'So in the first 3 weeks of Congress, we were able to pass my Rapid Ohia Death bill which is a huge thing. It's now over at the Senate. I've received overwhelming bipartisan support. And it is a testament, I think, to the fact that all of us collectively need to work to protect our forests and to really combat invasive species, disease. So it was a great first few weeks for me, in that regard, but yes, very stressful when you take a look at all the executive orders that we have been seeing coming down.'
Tokuda said the struggle is real regarding interisland flights for Molokai and Lanai residents.
Mokulele aims to resume flight operations within next 48 hours
'How do you get to your health appointments? I had one veteran literally say I decided not to go with the care I needed because it was too much of a struggle to be able to get back and forth between the islands. That's absolutely unacceptable. I've been talking with the FAA, the US Dept. of Transportation, I recently spoke to Mokulele. To me, we got to have contingency plans. Real ones in place. So it never happens again. People can always promise, we'll always fly. But the bottom line is for Molokai and Lanai, those aircrafts are lifelines. And so if those planes don't fly, what's the alternative? Either to get other planes running, to get ships running as well, to get goods, people whether it's getting people to emergency care, getting medicines or food on shore. We got to have those contingency plans in place and I'm willing to take a look if Congress has to mandate for essential air service. There needs to be real contingency plans in place to make sure this doesn't leave our communities stranded should the planes not fly,' Tokuda said.
Other priorities include cost of living for Hawaii residents being top of mind.
'The struggles that too many people have keeping a roof over their head and food on the table. And for so many in Hawaii, it's always been that cost of housing, the cost of living, and food prices. For myself very personally as you know I co-lead the bipartisan health caucus in Congress. How do you make sure that no matter where you live on our island, you have access to health care and the mental health services that you need. That is so critically important. These kitchen table issues. These are family issues, these are people issues. That's top priority for me and I will work with anyone in Congress on both sides of the aisle to get that down for our constituents.'
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