Kauai councilmembers join Hawaii delegation at Washington policy summit
Kauai councilmembers Bernard Carvalho Jr. and KipuKai Kualii were in Washington as more than 200 Hawaii leaders pressed Capitol Hill at the 10th Hawaii on the Hill summit.
Kauai County Councilmembers Bernard Carvalho Jr. and KipuKai Kualii were in Washington, D.C., this month as part of a statewide push to keep Hawaii’s priorities in front of federal decision-makers. Their presence at the 10th annual Hawaii on the Hill put Kauai inside a larger delegation that organizers said included more than 200 people from Hawaii and more than 90 businesses and nonprofits.
Sen. Mazie Hirono welcomed the group to the summit, which ran June 7-10 and was built as a four-day initiative to connect Hawaii businesses and nonprofits with congressional leaders and federal officials. The event was presented by the Hawaii Tourism Authority and organized as a partnership between Hirono and Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, giving the trip a clear advocacy purpose beyond networking alone.
For Kauai residents, the importance lies in what county officials take home from those meetings. Land use, housing, transportation and infrastructure needs on Kauai often depend on decisions made well beyond the island, and councilmembers who are in the room with Hawaii’s congressional delegation have a chance to keep those issues circulating in Honolulu and Washington at the same time. The June 8 photo from the Policy Summit showed Carvalho and Kualii listening alongside other state delegates, with Senate President Ron Kouchi and staff from the mayor’s office also part of the Hawaii delegation.
The summit has grown into a larger economic and political gathering over time. Hirono’s office said this year’s turnout topped 200 attendees and included more than 90 businesses and nonprofits, building on earlier versions of the event that focused on giving Hawaii participants direct access to policymakers. In a previous preview of the summit after a three-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hirono described Hawaii on the Hill as a way for Hawaii businesses to meet directly with policymakers.
Kauai has used the summit for years as a platform to press its case on the mainland. In 2016, The Garden Island reported that 12 organizations from Kauai were expected to take part in the third annual event, and in 2019 an organizer called Hawaii on the Hill “tremendously important” to Kauai. That long-running participation shows the summit has become part of the island’s broader strategy for staying visible as federal and state decisions shape life at home.
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