We don’t need to be reminded: the pandemic hit Hawaii hard. Households across the state faced — and continue to face — immense hardships, including the loss of income and an increasing lack of affordable housing.

Restaurants and retail establishments shuttered. Our houseless population increased. We saw the ongoing climate crisis and sea level rise disproportionately affect the Pacific and our islands.

It is past time that Congress makes sustainable investments in our infrastructure and communities before it is too late. Fortunately, the Build Back Better Act now being debated in Congress makes those investments.

The bill is transformative; it will provide unprecedented funding to create stable jobs, expand affordable health care, reduce prescription drug costs, and invest in solutions to the climate crisis.

It establishes free universal preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old, expands access to free school meals (which state taxpayers currently pay for), and provides access to affordable child care for families who have struggled to remain in the workforce. It incentivizes affordable rental and single-family homes in our famously unfair housing market rigged for wealthy visitors and corporate developers.

Moreover, the Build Back Better Act is the largest effort to combat climate change in American history — an effort that would have real benefits for those of us who live in the Pacific.

Wildfires, Drought

In August, thousands of people were forced to evacuate after the largest wildfire ever recorded in the state blazed out of control on Hawaii Island. As rainfall has continued to decrease in recent years, drought conditions have led to thousands of acres being scorched, with farmers facing catastrophic losses.

This legislation, which invests over $550 billion in tackling the climate crisis, would make an enormous difference in our ability to conserve natural resources and save homes.

It is indisputable Hawaii needs these investments.

Perhaps most importantly, Build Back Better is not to be paid for by the middle class — it is funded by the large corporations that expanded during the pandemic and an infinitesimally small number of obscenely rich people, who will remain obscenely rich even after they are taxed appropriately.

The necessity of the Build Back Better Act is obvious. Yet our own Rep. Ed Case has been reluctant to help get this popular and necessary bill passed.

Last Friday, Rep. Case, along with four other conservative House Democrats who have been holding up Build Back Better finally pledged to vote on the bill — without watering it down — once he receives fiscal information from the Congressional Budget Office.

Rep. Case, it is indisputable Hawaii needs these investments.

The people of this state deserve the opportunity to have a reasonable cost of living, job opportunities for young adults, safe air and clean water, and the freedom and risk that comes with pursuing happiness. This is our shot to correct decades of divestment and make the transformative change we need, with the federal investment we undoubtedly deserve.