Case: Kaua‘i roads, ag funding being supported in Congress By Chris Cook – The Garden Island U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Neighbor Islands-rural O‘ahu, Hawai‘i 2nd District, is taking a break in Hawai‘i before the 190th Congress goes into full swing
Case: Kaua‘i roads, ag funding being supported in Congress
By Chris Cook – The Garden Island
U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Neighbor Islands-rural O‘ahu, Hawai‘i 2nd District, is taking a break in Hawai‘i before the 190th Congress goes into full swing in the upcoming weeks.
Case offered an update on federal legislation being proposed that will benefit Kaua‘i residents.
At the top of his list is solving traffic problems on-island.
“Traffic and transportation is a big deal on all the Neighbor Islands right now,” he told The Garden Island in an interview.
Case said he hopes roughly $900 million in transportation funding will be passed during the session. Proposals include funding for improvements to the Kapa‘a bypass road, and the widening of Kaumuali‘i Highway out-side of Lihu‘e.
He said funding for Army Corps of Engineers improvements at the state’s Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor north of Waimea are still in place, though corps leaders are facing major funding cutbacks.
Case said he disagrees with what he sees as major cuts in federal funding for “high intensity drug trafficking programs” being made by President George Bush’s administration.
He said he is now a ranking member of the Agriculture Committee in the House of Representatives, and one of six Democratic members on the 24-member committee. The committee works on livestock and horticulture issues, and all crops grown in Hawai‘i with the exception of sugar cane.
“I think I can really turn up the heat on a range of agriculture issues,” Case said, including the use of sugar cane grown by workers at Makaweli-based Gay & Robinson for ethanol production.
“It’s going to be a very full session for me. I’m now in a national role,” Case said of his senior position on the Agriculture Committee.
Case said he’s completing 14 “talk-story” meetings across Hawai‘i, including three held on Kaua‘i last week.
“Withdrawal is not the right course of action,” Case said of the U.S. deployment in Iraq. “We need to accomplish our goals in a reasonable amount of time, and show clear support of our troops and for the families back home.”
He supports continued funding for the Iraq deployment.
Case has made trips over the past months to see first-hand what was going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to keep in contact with Hawai‘i troops in those areas.
“They are intense trips, but it’s necessary for me to check it out for myself, and to talk to the troops.”
The Hawai‘i congressman said he supports the concept of having a high-speed ferry link Honolulu with Kaua‘i and other islands.
“I supported it in Congress,” he said. “We have to break the inter-island transportation deadlock.”
He said he sees the Hawaii Superferry “as the best single opportunity we have seen in decades, if not ever,” to improve transportation for local residents and for the shipping of cargo inter-island.
Case said he supports an environmental study of the ferry’s potential impact on Kaua‘i and other islands.
“(The ferry company) should have to comply, and should comply. I don’t favor any special treatment, but neither do I support using the EIS (environmental impact statement) to oppose the concept of the superferry,” he said.
Chris Cook, editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or ccook@pulitzer.net.
