Hawaii Democrat Rep. Kai Kahele mentioned that he has not been to Washington, D.C. in months to ‘restrict his publicity to Covid-19.’
Kahele got here underneath scorching water on Tuesday after new reporting discovered he has hardly spent any time in Washington, D.C. over the previous 4 months and has apparently moonlighted as a industrial pilot since being elected to Congress.
Kahele has solely solid 5 votes in individual in 2022 – everywhere in the course of three days in January – and 120 votes by proxy, based on a brand new Honolulu Civil Beat evaluation.
Kahele’s workplace, which didn’t reply to requests for a proof from a number of information retailers together with DailyMail.com, instructed CNN: ‘To restrict his publicity to COVID-19 and the potential to unfold the virus, our workplace has tried to cut back Rep. Kahele’s cross-country journey whereas making certain he fulfills all of his tasks in Congress.’
A spokesperson for Kahele defined that the congressman lives in a multigenerational residence and he’s anxious about new coronavirus variants.
The spokesperson claimed that Kahele stays absolutely engaged nearly.
‘The Congressman has not missed a single vote this yr. He continues to take part in HASC and T&I Committee hearings and maximizes his time again residence by participating along with his constituents and addressing their issues on the federal degree.’
And whereas Home Ethics Guidelines solely enable $29,595 in annual exterior earnings, Kahele’s workplace revealed the congressman made $29,151.79 from Hawaiian Airways in 2021. Up to now this yr, Kahele has had a complete of 14.2 flying hours and made lower than $2,861.90.
Kahele, who ran to interchange Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, promised to ‘present up’ – in distinction to the congresswoman who was preoccupied with a run for the presidency. Now, he is mulling a run for governor.
Kahele skipped out on President Biden’s State of the Union tackle and was the one member of Hawaii’s delegation to overlook a gathering with Honolulu officers in D.C. to speak to the Federal Transit Administration a few $10 billion rail challenge and missed debate on the 2023 fiscal yr Protection price range.
Solely three members of Congress have voted by proxy greater than Kahele – Democratic Reps. Albio Sires of New Jersey, Lucille Roybal-Allard of California and Al Lawson of Florida.
Fellow Hawaiian Democrat Rep. Ed Case has but to ask a colleague to vote for him this yr and has completed so solely 30 occasions for the reason that begin of the pandemic.
Kahele has solely solid 5 votes in individual in 2022 – everywhere in the course of three days in January – and 120 votes by proxy, based on a brand new Civil Beat evaluation
Kahele has been working a minimum of half time as a Hawaiian Airways pilot whereas serving in Congress
Kahele can also be a member of the Hawaii Air Nationwide Guard
Kahele’s in-person participation appears to have fallen off dramatically initially of the brand new yr – he solely voted by proxy 49 occasions in 2021, most of these in March of final yr when Hawaii suffered historic flooding.
Kahele’s workplace refused to supply a duplicate of his schedule over the previous 4 months.
In a letter to the Home Clerk’s workplace dated April 4, Kahele mentioned he’s voting by proxy ‘because of the ongoing public well being emergency.’ However the congressman has been posting maskless images of himself everywhere in the Aloha State.
When he isn’t in Washington, Kahele absolutely leads a busy schedule – he serves in Hawaii’s Air Nationwide Guard and is a pilot for Hawaiian Airways.
His Hawaiian Airways job paid him practically $120,00 in 2020, the yr he was elected to interchange Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, based on his most up-to-date monetary disclosure report.
Kahele is pictured above on the dya he was sworn into Congress in January 2021
Kahele’s communications director Michael Ahn instructed Politico that Kahele flies ”occasional flights to keep up his certification.’
‘The congressman shouldn’t be making $120,000. He’s absolutely in compliance with Ethics,’ Ahn mentioned. ‘He’s an lively member of the airline union, the ALPA Pilots Union, and is an authorized industrial pilot and lively member of Hawaiian Airways. He does fly occasional flights to keep up his certification.’
Hawaiian Airways additionally lobbies earlier than the Home Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the place Kahele sits. Hawaiian Airways has lobbied for a slew of payments, together with some that Kahele has co-sponsored. The airline has contributed to Kahele’s marketing campaign yearly since 2019.
Lobbyists say that Kahele’s workplace has gone AWOL on making requests for the protection appropriations invoice, regardless that he sits on the Armed Providers Committee. Two lobbyists mentioned there have been ‘crickets’ out of Kahele’s workplace on the subject of establishing conferences and discussing coverage targets for the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act.
Proxy voting is barely allowed within the Home and has been in place since March 2020 on the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. A Brookings Institute research discovered that there have been spikes in proxy voting in November 2020 when lame duck members who had been retiring or misplaced their races selected to not make the trek to Washington and in January 2021 when members had safety issues within the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Members should not required to supply a cause for proxy voting apart from to attest that it’s ‘because of the public well being emergency.’
‘It is time to finish proxy voting within the Home,’ Washington Put up columnist James Hohmann wrote on Twitter. ‘That is ridiculous. Rep. Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii) hasn’t voted on any payments since January. Disengaged on approps. However he is posting footage of himself at marijuana dispensaries and nonetheless working as an airline pilot.’