Brian Schatz: “we are running out of time. We have just over a week left before Congress goes home for the holidays, and we cannot…”

“we are running out of time. We have just over a week left before Congress goes home for the holidays, and we cannot leave town without passing long-term disaster relief. People have waited and waited and waited and waited for help to arrive, and every day that we don't get this done is another day that survivors can't start to get back to life as they knew it--going to work, going to school, dropping their kids off at basketball practice, getting together with friends and neighbors. For the people in Lahaina, help cannot come soon enough. Almost a year and a half after the tragic fires, it is as hard as ever to make ends meet. Housing is scarce. Prices are going up. Jobs are hard to come by. People are doing everything they can to get by and to help each other out. So it is not for a lack of trying; it is that they were never meant to confront this recovery alone. When you have lost everything, when you are still mourning friends and loved ones, when you are 16 months into a recovery and normalcy still feels so far away, you need help, and getting that help is the difference between people being able to stay on Maui or leaving. People are leaving the only place they have ever called home. Those are the stakes. They are not theoretical. This is happening to hundreds of families in West Maui. Lahaina is not the only community that has been devastated by a disaster.…”