Washington, D.C
Green Proposes a Federal Affairs Office To Make Hawaiʻi’s Case In DC
Gov. Josh Green is asking for state money to open a new federal affairs office with staff in Hawaiʻi and Washington, D.C., citing dramatic shifts in federal policy that have already unfolded under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Green seeks a new $1.3 million appropriation over the next two fiscal years to finance the five-person office.
“The federal landscape has changed drastically within the past few months, with more changes likely on the horizon,” the governor’s office said in written testimony on the state budget measure, House Bill 300. “Given the speed with which changes occur and the highly fluid nature of these changes, keeping abreast of federal affairs requires more time and resources than in years prior.”
Three members of the staff would work in Washington and two in Hawaiʻi, according to testimony submitted to the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.
The state Department of Transportation already retains a Washington lobbyist under a $14,000-per-month contract to work on transportation, biosecurity and climate change issues, but the new state team would have a more expansive mandate.
“These positions will establish and cultivate strong working relationships with federal agencies in D.C. and regionally, opening up direct lines of communication to advocate for the State’s priorities and needs,” the governor’s office testimony states.
“As the State continues to navigate these uncertain times, these federal affairs positions will provide a crucial lifeline through which to facilitate quick responses to and advocacy around federal funding and resources.”
Andy Winer, a former chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, said Green’s plan is prompted partly by the upheaval in the early weeks of the Trump administration. But Winer said the governor also talked about opening such an office during his 2022 election campaign.
Green had long conversations with members of the congressional delegation because he believes Hawaiʻi can do a better job of advocating for its needs in Washington, Winer said, “and this is one of the approaches that he’s looked at to address some of those shortcomings.”
Winer is executive vice president of the public affairs and communications firm Strategies 360, a Seattle-based company with Hawaiʻi connections, and works in its Washington, D.C., office. He worked for Schatz during the first two years of Trump’s previous administration and has been a close adviser to Green in recent years.
“We certainly didn’t see eye-to-eye with them on everything, but we were able to forge relationships with that administration,” Winer said. “We did pass legislation, we were able to secure funding for Hawaiʻi, and so I think the idea here is to have a presence that could build bridges not only with Congress but with the Trump administration.”
“Once an election is over and if you’re working for government, one of the things that you need to be able to do is to understand how to make that situation work for the benefit of whoever you’re representing,” Winer said.
He added: “If you are a skilled negotiator, if you’re skilled at doing the advocacy that is meaningful back home, you find ways to work together with people even if you don’t always agree with them.”
Green declined a request for an interview, but his senior advisor Will Kane said in a written statement the administration would look for office space for the D.C. portion of its federal affairs staff in the Hall of the States, where many other states already have Washington-based employees.
“The Federal Affairs team will engage federal agencies at a range of levels to cultivate connections and advocate for Hawaiʻi’s interests,” Kane said in the statement. “The rapid policy changes at the federal government have increased the demand for these positions as they are crucial for interpreting these policy changes and developing state guidance.”
The state already has at least one professional lobbying firm in Washington.
Ed Sniffen, director of the state Department of Transportation, said his department has contracted with the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen since 2021. DOT is represented by Denis Dwyer of that firm, a longtime advocate for Hawaiʻi transportation projects.
Sniffen said Hawaiʻi’s congressional delegation is well connected on the Democratic side, but “we also knew that we needed some kind of in on the Republican side, just to make their job easier.”
He said Dwyer has helped the state to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in discretionary grant funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
DOT pays $14,000 a month on the Williams & Jensen contract, and Sniffen said the department has made the firm’s services available to other agencies in Hawaiʻi, including the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.
If state lawmakers fund the federal affairs positions that Green is requesting, Winer said the new hires will need a thorough understanding of Hawaiʻi, but don’t need to be professional lobbyists.
“People who work in D.C. in government are all the time working together to get things done, and that’s really what you’re looking for in this role — people who can build bridges, work together with Republicans and Democrats, and find ways to do things that will be helpful for back home,” he said. “That’s the skill set you’re looking for.”
“Having seen what other states are doing, it just seems like best practices at this point,” he said.
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4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
Washington, D.C. (7News) — Rosselli is the newest restaurant to open in DC.
Bringing in classic Italian flavors, Chef Carlos explained how he hopes his food is a unique addition to the Italian food scene in the DMV.
Chef also demoed a signature dish with Brian and Megan.
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You can learn more and book your table here.
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