Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday had the expected national scope, but much of it, perhaps more than usual, gave Hawaii residents reason to sit up and take notice.
The islands’ cost of living is high even under the best of circumstances, which is what makes the current rates of inflation difficult for Hawaii to bear.
Infrastructure investments, such as those secured in last year’s bipartisan bill that the president enacted, are critical here, with inflation and high interest rates putting a damper on some new starts and slowing hiring for construction projects.
Some of those investments will help this state adapt to the already evident impacts from climate change. But, as with any major federal infusion of dollars, the real test will lie in how well the state tracks and leverages that money. Crucial, too, will be Hawaii’s skill in vying for the many competitive grants.
Finally, Biden was delivering the speech in the wake of a new conflict: the tracking of a Chinese-manufactured surveillance balloon that drifted for a week before military jets shot it down. The episode also shot down hopes for improving relations through diplomatic exchanges.
And Hawaii is right to be watching tensions mount across the Asia-Pacific region. Just last week, an agreement was announced for a U.S. military buildup in the Philippines.
Rising Indo-Pacific pressures are sure to influence the debate over the shape of the military presence in Hawaii, strained by recent mishandling of toxic fuel spills and leaks. The top brass will need to show how renewing the leases on training sites in Pohakuloa and elsewhere are critical to national defense.
The president’s clear mission was to lay out how his program was turning things around.
“Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of choices we made in the last several years,” he said.
In Biden’s wide-ranging address, he sought to sow some seeds of bipartisanship, notwithstanding the protests raised at points of contention. Regardless, it was good to see House Speaker Kevin McCarthy applaud a pledge to work together, and to hear the Biden spell out his “unity agenda.”
The aims, at least, are uncontroversial, with projects aimed at ending cancer, helping veterans, tackling the opioid epidemic and improving mental health coverage.
The agenda indeed will need to focus on shared priorities, given that there is pressure to curb discretionary spending as part of talks to secure the votes for raising the U.S. debt ceiling.
That said, it’s important to acknowledge the value of federal spending spurred by the pandemic, especially for a small state such as Hawaii that was hit so hard by the shutdown of the tourism industry. The rush to get the money out did result in grants accepted fraudulently, but overall the outlay was crucial for survival of Hawaii’s service-industry economy.
It was the faster-than-expected economic recovery that has left this state with a surplus enabling progress on some elusive goals — housing development among them.
The looming climate-change crisis also can be addressed through federal allotments. Just to name one: $25 million will be available through September 2031 for Native Hawaiian communities coping with climate change. Other funding caches from the infrastructure law would provide roughly $160 million to boost broadband internet connectivity.
Biden’s promises — greater scrutiny of China, much-needed support for infrastructure, building climate resilience, better gun control and protecting women’s right to abortion, among them — align with Hawaii’s priority concerns. Top that with the encouraging economic data released last week, and Hawaii’s residents should find much to admire in the state of the union he describes.