Capital adventure: More than 200 of Hawaiʻi’s political and business luminaries gathered in Washington, D.C., this week for the 9th annual Hawaiʻi on the Hill event, a three-day gathering that allows business and nonprofit groups to showcase their wares and meet directly with congressional power players.

Co-sponsored by Sen. Mazie Hirono and the Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi, the event always attracts a large gathering of Capitol Hill denizens, including dozens of congressional staffers and federal agency workers who no doubt go for the fab food dished up at Taste of Hawaiʻi, one of the event’s spotlight features. The event also includes a policy summit with numerous high-level speakers and dignitaries, which this year included Gov. Josh Green and U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer, Amy Klobuchar, Ed Markey, Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis, among other federal officials.

Our intrepid DC correspondent Nick Grube moseyed on over and snapped these photos. And he got a bit of news out of Green, who was there for the first time. In fact, it was the first time any Hawaiʻi governor had made it to one of the Hawaiʻi on the Hill extravaganzas.

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Green told Grube he’d just met for more than two hours with Dr. Mehmet Oz, now the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, at Oz’s request. The original intent of the meeting was to discuss whether Hawaiʻi would ban food stamp beneficiaries from purchasing soda and candy in exchange for a delay in implementing proposed funding cuts to the federal SNAP program.

But Green says much of the discussion focused instead on broader health care issues, particularly related to the future of Medicaid as Republicans seek to cut billions of dollars out of the program to help pay for tax cuts, increased military spending and immigration enforcement.

Green was one of only three governors invited to the meeting with Oz and the only Democrat. His goal, he said, was to provide the Trump administration with some perspective on what the cuts would actually mean for Hawaiʻi and look for opportunities to reduce the impact or delay them altogether.

Green says he’s pitched the administration on the idea of signing a waiver to block Hawaii’s SNAP recipients from using their benefits to purchase candy and other sugary drinks, such as soda, in exchange for the promise that any cuts to the program be delayed for at least two years.

He says he’s open to cutting similar deals, depending on what Congress ultimately decides in regard to cuts to Medicaid and other programs.

Green says it was Oz himself who reached out to him to schedule the meeting in what he described as a cold call. He says Oz told him that Trump suggested the two meet so they could talk doctor to doctor. (Does The Blog need to remind anyone that Green is a doctor?)

Despite Green’s willingness to cut a deal with the administration, he says he still wants to make sure that whatever agreements are reached are detailed in writing with clear expectations from both sides.
“It’s very important that we hold each other to account,” he said.

And now on to the photos.