U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Neighbor Islands, rural O’ahu, recently made his first visit to Kaua’i since his return from a congressional trip to Iraq. Case joined his Kaua’i supporters in participating in Friday night’s Lights on Rice parade. The congressman
U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Neighbor Islands, rural O’ahu, recently made his first visit to Kaua’i since his return from a congressional trip to Iraq.
Case joined his Kaua’i supporters in participating in Friday night’s Lights on Rice parade.
The congressman outlined for The Garden Island how new federal funding and federal programs will be helping Kaua’i in the coming new year, particularly speaking about various Kaua’i provisions in a massive federal spending bill.
The Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which he and fellow House members are voting on next week, contains money to battle the island’s crystal methamphetamine (Ice) problem.
The collaboration between community and county, state and federal governments got this money into the federal bill, Case said. “This was a direct response to community concerns,” and represents “democracy in action,” he said.
The community said “we need help with the ice problem,” and the federal government delivered, said Case. U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai’i, pushed for the provision while the bill moved through the Senate, Case said.
The $800,000 for new buses and improved bus stops for The Kaua’i Bus and $500,000 for establishment of a high-technology training center in Waimea have been discussed in The Garden Island earlier.
The high-tech appropriation is important because of what it says about the people of Kaua’i, Case said: “We believe in PMRF (the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands) and dual-use technologies, but let’s ensure jobs go to local kids.”
“Dual-use technologies” refers to new systems that have applications in both military and civilian uses.
The appropriations bill also contains money to improve Ohiki Road in Hanalei Valley’s Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge. The road is threatened by erosion, he said.
Case, who is running for re-election in 2004 and recently celebrated one year in office, said he and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawai’i, included language in the appropriations bill to allow county officials to continue to have discretion over use of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant funds.
Mayor Bryan Baptiste and mayors of the other counties all wish to keep that discretion and those funds, but federal officials demand money be given to state leaders, and officials of state governments prioritize projects and decide how the money will be spent.
Kaua’i government officials get around $900,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds each year, and are in the process of soliciting bids for projects for all of those funds except $180,000 that will be kept for administrative costs, said Cyndi Mei Ozaki, county public information officer.
On the issue of education, Case said he has requested U.S. Department of Education officials to investigate whether or not federal special-education funding is trickling down to charter schools.
“Kaua’i has some charter schools that I very much support, especially on the Native Hawaiian side,” he said.
Now, the state Department of Education gets special-education funds from the federal government, but he is hearing reports that those funds aren’t getting to the charter schools, he said.
Case said he felt compelled to join the congressional trip to Iraq to see for himself if U.S. officials have a realistic plan in Iraq, “and I was getting no clear answers from anybody in D.C. I had to get out of D.C. and find out,” he said.
“There is a plan” for Iraq Case said, though in his mind it is somewhere in between an immediate pullout and the doubling of the U.S. presence in Iraq.
“What should we be doing there?” he asked, proceeding then to answer his own question:
“First, establish security and stability;
“Second, provide a government of the Iraqi people’s choosing;
“Third, assist in rebuilding of Iraq’s infrastructure and economy;
“And fourth, get out.
“Those are the right goals, given that we’re there,” he said.
The occupation also provides valuable lessons about what should be done the next time a similar situation occurs, he said.
“It’s a debate that instructs us for future circumstances,” before sending in troops. “For Iraq, it’s over. We went in,” Case said.
“That was a very difficult trip,” but one Case felt obligated to make because “national leaders have an obligation to go in the field and see how the troops are doing, and experience it.”
Case visited the island earlier in the week to speak before the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program at the Hyatt Regency Kauai Resort & Spa in Po’ipu.
He talked about reasons he voted against a 700-page Medicare-reform bill that recently passed and was signed into law by President George Bush.
Case felt there was no compelling reason to accept an imperfect bill, and there was time to fix it. “This one doesn’t kick in until 2006.”
Further, he feels that “most seniors are going to be very disappointed” with the “spotty” prescription-drug benefit included in the bill. While he feels a prescription-drug benefit for seniors is “critical,” the one approved by Congress has some shortcomings, he said.
There are no provisions for cost control of the prescription-drug industry, no provisions for bulk drug purchases, and no mechanism to allow for re-importation of drugs available cheaper in countries other than the United States, he said.
On the positive side, the bill contains provisions for greater assistance for rural health-care providers that should benefit Kaua’i doctors and other health-care providers with better reimbursement rates, he said.
Associate Editor Paul C. Curtis may be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
