Everyone has to run their own race and make their own decisions.
Brian Schatz
Islands are going to suffer from climate change in very, very difficult ways. And it's not just Pacific islands. It's not just Puerto Rico.
This was a theme of Sen. Akaka's career - to advocate for people who did not have power, for people who were vulnerable. He was a champion for the federal government employees who continue to this day to be a punching bag for some.
We are now in a situation in which we will have to rely on market forces to maintain a free and open Internet. And nobody really knows whether that will work or not. One thing we do know is we didn't need to do this to ourselves. This was a solution in search of a problem.
The U.S. must continue to carefully withdraw troops from Afghanistan at a pace based on assessment of the ground conditions so we do not leave our Afghan partners unable to guarantee long-term security or risk Afghanistan becoming a terrorist safe haven again.
We believe that if you want a strong middle class, you have to vote for Democrats.
If someone wants to do a carbon fee and someone else wants to do a cap on emissions or a renewable portfolio standard, we don't start labeling each other as more or less progressive.
With health care, somebody at some point decided that there was a bright line and that you had to pick sides. Well, I reject that view.
There is no lack of profitability or investment among these telecommunications companies. There is nothing that an open-internet order did to them that diminished their success.
For the first time in American history, it's not clear whether or not it's smart for a 17-year-old to enroll in college. It absolutely depends on the debt load and the quality of the institution. That is a change from the way things always were and, frankly, the way things always should be. It should always be a good idea to go to college.
Millions of Americans have bad credit because of mistakes from credit agencies, and it can ruin lives, stopping people from getting a job or owning a home or car.
To address the open question of whether we are addicted to technological devices and platforms, Congress must understand the current scientific consensus, potential gaps in research, and the best way to build a body of evidence that can inform effective policymaking.
It's important and good to email the Federal Communications Commission, and it's important and good to educate your friends via social media about what's happening. But in a representative democracy, the way to get policy changes is through elections.
On a mild day in January 2011, Republicans in the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It was the first of more than 80 attempts to dismantle the landmark law.
I have a pretty friendly professional working relationship with Mr. Pai, and I told him not to walk down too much of a partisan path. I didn't think it would be good in terms of policy. And I didn't think it would be good in terms of the FCC's ability to solve other problems.
People in the tech community may not like politics because it seems less interesting or less pure than what they're doing. But you see the result of not caring about politics. This is no longer an abstract problem.
When former president Lyndon B. Johnson unveiled his plans for the program that would become Medicaid, he reflected on the future of public policy in the United States.
I just believe strongly that anybody who wants to pursue additional education after high school ought to be given that chance.
I have served in the Senate since December 2012 with seats on the Appropriations and Commerce committees and previously served as the lieutenant governor and in the state House. These positions provided me insights on Hawaii's priorities and how to effectively work with stakeholders to achieve meaningful results.
There was a summer during which the whole South Shore of Oahu, you could see the bleached coral almost across all of the surfing spots. And so it's gone from an issue that only environmentalists cared about to an issue that almost everybody in the state of Hawaii cares about, because it's really affecting our quality of life.
Americans are worried about climate change because they can already witness its effects. They see its signature in the drought in California, where record heat has dried the state's fertile soil.
James Bridenstine is a climate denier with no scientific background who has made a career out of ignoring science.
I think there are districts - a lot of them - where Donald Trump is deeply unpopular, and tying your opponent to Donald Trump's unpopularity is a winning strategy. But that's not true for every district.
I'm saying that when a publicly traded company says something doesn't make a difference in terms of their investments, I trust that they are representing those facts accurately.
The tendency among Democrats, especially after a devastating loss, is to come up with either a new individual to lead us, a new strategy, a new slogan.
It's easy for us to look at another country or another political party and say, 'Enough! Do better!'. It is a tougher conversation when the problem is in our own tent.
One of things I have always been open to is making policy in the Senate Commerce Committee.
When the Obama administration passed the net neutrality rules in 2015, even when we were winning, I favored trying to get these rules in a statute, because I feel that the best way to establish predictability for the marketplace is to make sure they're not subject to the whims of a partisan vote at the FCC.
I am always open to a conversation. I am always open to a bipartisan compromise.
As members of Congress, we have to pursue the Congressional Review Act legislation as soon as possible.
The Internet is working because it's free and open, and there's no discrimination. Without these rules, ISPs could treat content differently based on commercial interests or even ideology.
The most important thing to remember here is that the Internet is not broken, and all of the innovation that we've seen since inception has been based on it being free and open.
The FCC is a quasi-judicial body. It is supposed to undertake this period of public comment with a degree of seriousness and respect.
Health care has gotten really weird politically. We've sort of tied ourselves in knots on this issue in a way that we don't do... for criminal-justice reform or tax policy or climate policy.
If the private insurance market can survive in a context of a public option, good for them. But if they can't, then that will tell you something about the nature of the market.
For several days in July of 2012, Greenland surface ice cover melted more than at any time in 30 years of satellite observation. During that month, an estimated 97% of the ice sheet thawed.
Our objective should be to have a competition of ideas... I think it's a golden age in terms of policy ideas when it comes to Democrats and health care.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent allied with Democrats, has championed Medicare for All, which would give every American coverage through the federal health insurance program for seniors. Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow wants Medicare coverage for anyone over the age of 55.
There is a growing consensus in the private sector that companies can and should take action to address the problem of gun violence in our country.
Sen. Akaka never forgot the cost of war on our country.
If there's ever a vote for single-payer, I'm a 'yes.' But there are lots of things we can do in the meantime.
The filibuster is used more aggressively, so I think doing each individual appropriations bill through regular order would be a home run. But I think that we should try to hit a few singles.
We've shown a willingness to do the right thing, and we've shown a willingness to work in a bipartisan fashion. The problems are on the Republican side.
The East-West Center directly supports the U.S. rebalance to the Asia Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue with countries in the region.
A missile attack is federal. A missile attack is not a local responsibility. Confirmation and notification of something like a missile attack should reside with the agency that knows first and knows for sure: in other words, the people who know should be the people who tell us.
Because these credit agencies operate in the dark, they are allowed to be terribly unfair and unaccountable.
We need a generation of net neutrality voters. People now really understand what's at stake, and we need to translate millions of comments to the FCC into millions of votes in the midterm.
I think there's a short-term legislative strategy. I think there's a longer-term legislative strategy in terms of enshrining net neutrality principles into law rather than a rule, and I think there's an election strategy.
Telecom companies are doing very, very well. And the internet economy is doing very, very well.
The good news is the Republicans have started to say the right things about net neutrality. The bad news is we're not particularly close on what a bill would look like.
