Brian Schatz

I agree with the Secretary that it is time for bold action.

I hope we will be able to quickly come to a budget agreement to mark up this July.

Decades of discriminatory housing policies have segregated neighborhoods, creating economic inequality for minority communities.

This is an honest and clean request that avoids previous gimmicks to eliminate popular programs like CDBG and HOME.

HUD has become a sort of politically polarized agency with the notable exception of many members, on a bipartisan basis.

Look, we have got to appropriate money to affordable housing, but the truth is, lots of local governments are actually creating housing shortages and then lamenting housing shortages.

We need to get people back to work, and housing needs to be part of those priorities.

This is not just a safety issue for the residents of public housing, it is an issue of both racial justice and climate justice.

The President's budget addresses the affordable housing crisis head on, and dramatically strengthens our social safety net for the most vulnerable among us.

I am very concerned about youth use of e-cigarettes.

We want to make sure that we are on equal footing with all native people.

Unless Congress acts, we will go back to the Dark Ages, with very limited access to telehealth.

Last month, Mr. Secretary, you said that telehealth can be a godsend.

The U.S. shares a unique political relationship with the native Hawaiian community.

We're taken by surprise, totally flat-footed.

We need to prioritize the voices of Native Americans in our policies.

We want to do the right thing here ... passing an NIL bill at the Congressional level is critical to moving forward.

I do not think we are prepared to do that, in terms of executing on it.

If we are trying to enact a national NIL standard, ... why we would also try to complicate this matter by providing immunity against claims from former students.

I am hoping that you will consider expanding the scope of the Tribal Health Research Office to include native Hawaiians.

I have a bill with Senators Feinstein and Grassley, which passed the Senate, did not pass the House, to address some of these barriers.

In 2019, you wrote to me that the NIH is committed to advancing research on the risks and potential benefits of marijuana for therapeutic uses.

We can go anywhere in Indian Country and see this happening. They are doing it locally. Because they are the world class experts.

I am both hopeful and committed to continue moving this body in a positive direction to strengthen Native languages.

These efforts have been transformational. In Hawaii, more than 18,000 people now speak Hawaiian at home, up from just 2,000 Hawaiian-language speakers in the 1970s.