1.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
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Hawaii
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Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States of America, having received statehood on August 21,1959. Hawaii is the only U. S. state located in Oceania and it is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the only U. S. state not located in the Americas, the state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast, Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi. The last is the largest island in the group, it is called the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, Hawaii has over a million permanent residents, along with many visitors and U. S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii is the 8th-smallest and the 11th-least populous, but the 13th-most densely populated of the fifty U. S. states. It is the state with an Asian plurality. The states coastline is about 750 miles long, the fourth longest in the U. S. after the coastlines of Alaska, Florida, the state of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. A common Hawaiian explanation of the name of Hawaiʻi is that was named for Hawaiʻiloa and he is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. The Hawaiian language word Hawaiʻi is very similar to Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, cognates of Hawaiʻi are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori, Rarotongan and Samoan. According to linguists Pukui and Elbert, lsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaiʻi or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the home, but in Hawaii. A somewhat divisive political issue arose in 1978 when the Constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as an official state language. The title of the constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article XV, Section 1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii, diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949, predates the use of the okina and the kahakō in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the name in the Hawaiian language is Hawaiʻi. In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the government recognized Hawaii as the official state name. Official government publications, department and office titles, and the Seal of Hawaii use the spelling with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length
3.
United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures
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United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House
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Brian Schatz
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Brian Emanuel Schatz is an American politician who is the senior United States Senator for Hawaii. Schatz was appointed by Governor Neil Abercrombie to replace Senator Daniel Inouye after his death in 2012, Schatz served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1998 to 2006, where he represented the 25th Legislative District and was chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii from 2008 to 2010. He served as lieutenant governor until December 26,2012, when Abercrombie appointed Schatz to serve out Daniel Inouyes U. S. Senate term until the 2014 special election, upon his swearing-in, Schatz was the youngest U. S. Schatz won the 2014 special election to complete the remainder of Inouyes Senate term, Schatz was born to a Jewish family in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is the son of Barbara Jane and Irwin Jacob Schatz, Schatzs father was notable as the first to publicly identify the injustice of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in 1964, and remained an influential critic of the study through his life. When Brian was two old, his family moved to Hawaii, where he graduated from Punahou School. Schatz enrolled at Pomona College in Claremont, California, he spent a term studying in Kenya as part of the International Training Program. After graduating with a B. A. in philosophy, he returned to Hawaii and he became active in the community through his involvement in Youth for Environmental Services in the 1980s. He served as CEO of Helping Hands Hawaii and director of the Makiki Community Library, in March 2010, Schatz stepped down from Helping Hands to run for lieutenant governor. In 1998, Schatz, a Democrat, challenged the incumbent State Representative of the 24th District of the Hawaii House of Representatives, Republican Sam Aiona, in the 2000 rematch, he was re-elected, 57%–43%. In 2002, he ran in the newly redrawn 25th House district, in 2004, he defeated Republican Tracy Okubo 64%–36%. The 25th district includes Makiki and Tantalus on Oahu, Schatz ran for Hawaiis 2nd congressional district, vacated by Ed Case, who had decided to run for the U. S. Senate. The Democratic primary featured 10 candidates, seven of whom served in the Hawaii Legislature, mazie Hirono, the Lieutenant Governor, was the only one who had held statewide office and thus enjoyed the most name recognition. She also raised more money than any candidate in the race, mostly because of the endorsement of EMILYs List. Still, she won with just 22% of the vote, just 845 votes ahead of State Senator Colleen Hanabusa, State Representative Schatz ranked sixth with 7% of the vote, behind Hirono and four state senators. Schatz, one of the earliest supporters of Barack Obama for president and he wants to govern the United States by hope. In 2008, Schatz worked as spokesman for Obamas campaign in Hawaii, in April 2008, he began running for the position of chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, and won the job at the state convention the following month. During his tenure, the Democrats increased the number of party members
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Mazie Hirono
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Mazie Keiko Hirono /ˈmeɪzi hᵻˈroʊnoʊ/ is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Hawaii, in office since 2013. She was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Hawaii in 2002 but was defeated by Republican Linda Lingle and she then served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Hawaiis 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2013. She is the first elected female Senator from Hawaii, the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate, Senator born in Japan, and the nations first Buddhist Senator. She considers herself a non-practicing Buddhist and is cited with Hank Johnson as the first Buddhist to serve in the United States Congress. She is the woman to be elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii. The Democratic nominee for the U. S. Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Daniel Akaka, Hirono won the election, Hirono was sworn in on January 3,2013, by the Vice President and President of the Senate, Joe Biden. Hirono was the person of Asian ancestry serving in the U. S. Senate until 2016 when senators Tammy Duckworth and Kamala Harris were elected in the states of Illinois. She is the current dean of Hawaiis Congressional Delegation, Mazie Hirono was born on November 3,1947, in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Although born in Japan, she was born to a mother who was an American citizen, at the age of 16, her maternal grandfather, Sato Hiroshi, immigrated to Hawaii to work on sugarcane plantations, Hirono’s grandmother, Tari Shinoki, was a picture bride. After finding plantation work difficult, they opened a bathhouse on River Street in Honolulu in 1928, the couple had a daughter, Sato Laura Chie, in 1924 and a son, Akira. In 1939, Tari returned to Japan with their son and daughter, though Laura felt out of place in Japan, in 1946, aged 22, she married a veterinarian, Hirono Matabe, and moved with her husband to southern Fukushima. The couple had three children, Roy, Mazie and Wayne, Mazie was the child and only daughter. Hironos father was a gambler and alcoholic who would pawn his wifes possessions for gambling money. Treated like a slave, by her in-laws, Hirono said, as Laura later recounted, My brother sent money to buy a school uniform for my son. My husband took the money, went to town and never came back home and it was getting closer to the start of school, so I went to look for him. I found out he had ordered an overcoat for himself with the money and he didnt need an overcoat in the spring. Thats when I made up my mind to leave, after telling her in-laws she would be taking her elder son and Hirono to school in her hometown, Laura left the house, never to return. Selling her clothes for the fare, she returned to her parents house
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Colleen Hanabusa
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Colleen Wakako Hanabusa /kəˈliːn ˈhɑːnəˌbuːsə/ is an American politician who is the U. S. Representative for Hawaiis 1st congressional district, serving since November 2016 and she is a member of the Democratic Party. Before her election to the U. S. House of Representatives, Hanabusa was a member of the Hawaii Senate and she served as the Senate Majority Leader before being elected Hawaiis first woman President of the Senate in 2007. On August 24,2011, she announced her intention to run for reelection to Congress, Abercrombie decided against appointing Hanabusa and chose Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii Brian Schatz instead. Hanabusa announced a Democratic primary challenge to the incumbent Schatz in the 2014 special election, Hanabusa also won the election on November 8,2016 and was sworn in on November 14. A fourth-generation American of Japanese ancestry, Colleen Hanabusa grew up in Waiʻanae with her two brothers, her parents, and her grandparents. In 1969 she graduated from St. Andrews Priory, Hanabusa is a labor lawyer with almost 30 years of experience, and a corporate officer in a family-run corporation. In November 1998, Hanabusa was elected as the senator from the 21st District. The 21st District includes Waianae, where her family has resided for four generations, as well as Ko Olina, Kahe Point, Nanakuli, Maili, Makaha, Makua and Kaena Point. One of Hanabusas first acts upon being elected was to organize senators to vote against the confirmation of Hawaii Attorney General Margery Bronster. In 2003 she was named one of Hawaii’s “top ten political power brokers”, along with the state’s governor, Hanabusa previously ran unsuccessfully in a special election held in January 2003 to replace the late Patsy T. Representative from Hawaiis 2nd congressional district, losing to Ed Case, in 2006 she ran for the same seat after Case retired to unsuccessfully challenge Senator Daniel Akaka in the Democratic primary. Hanabusa was again unsuccessful, losing in the Democratic primary to former Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono by 844 votes, when Governor Ben Cayetano vetoed the tax credit bill, Hanabusa took the unprecedented step of suing to overturn the veto. Within months, Hanabusas then-fiancé John Souza received a deal in purchasing one of Stones homes in Ko Olina. In February 2005, less than two years after Souza bought the home, he sold it for a $421,000 profit, according to real estate records. Souza and Hanabusa, who were engaged at the time and married in 2008, when State Rep. Glenn Wakai introduced legislation to prevent the eating of dogs and cats, Hanabusa refused to hold hearings on it in the State Senate Judiciary Committee, preventing it from passing. The Ko Olina tax-credit legislation, intended to promote development of an aquarium at the resort. Ko Olina Resort eventually returned the tax credit, but the Lingle Administration, Hanabusas spokesperson stated these interest payments were merely repayment of a bank loan
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Hawaii's 1st congressional district
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Hawaiis 1st congressional district is a congressional district in the U. S. state of Hawaii. The district is smaller and more populated than the 2nd Congressional District. It is the only district in the United States. The district is represented by Colleen Hanabusa who was elected by special election to fill the term of Democrat Mark Takai who died July 2016. Hanabusa was also elected to the seat for the term that began on January 3,2017. When Hawaii and Alaska were admitted to the Union in 1959, in the reapportionment following the 1960 U. S. Census, Hawaii was entitled to a second U. S. Representative. Instead of creating two congressional districts, the continued to elect its Representatives at-large. Two representatives were first elected in 1962 and Hawaii was first represented by two U. S, Representatives on January 2,1963 upon the convening of the 88th Congress. The 1st Congressional District was created in 1971 when Hawaii began electing its representatives from districts instead of electing at-large Representative statewide, election results from presidential races District established and redistricted from seat B of the at-large district following the 91st Congress. As of November 2016, there are three members of the House who are currently living. The most recent representative to die was Mark Takai, who died in office on July 20,2016, hawaiis congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, the Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
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Tulsi Gabbard
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Tulsi Gabbard is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who has been the United States Representative for Hawaiis 2nd congressional district since 2013. She was also a vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee until February 28,2016, elected in 2012, she is the first American Samoan and the first Hindu member of the United States Congress. She served in a zone in Iraq. Gabbard served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2002 to 2004, Gabbard supports abortion rights, opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has called for a restoration of the Glass–Steagall Act, and has been in favor of same-sex marriage since 2012. Tulsi Gabbard was born on April 12,1981, in Leloaloa, American Samoa and her father, Mike Gabbard, was born in Fagatogo, American Samoa, and became a naturalized citizen at age one. Her mother, Carol Gabbard, was born in Decatur, Indiana, in 1983, when Gabbard was two years old, her family moved to Hawaii. Her mother is of European descent and a practicing Hindu, Tulsi fully embraced Hinduism as a teenager. Her siblings names are Bhakti, Jai, Narayan, and Vrindavan, Gabbard was home-schooled through high school except for two years at a girls-only missionary academy in the Philippines. She graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 2009 and she returned from a deployment to Iraq in 2006 and worked for U. S. Senator Daniel Akaka, then volunteered for deployment to the Middle East in 2009. After returning to Hawaii, she was elected to the Honolulu City Council, in 2012, she ran for the open 2nd Congressional District seat and won the primary with 55% of the vote in an upset over former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann. She won the election with 81% of the vote. In the House of Representatives, Gabbard serves on the Armed Services and she is also a military police officer with the Hawaii Army National Guard. In 2002, after redistricting, Gabbard ran to represent the 42nd House District of the Hawaii House of Representatives and she won the four-candidate Democratic primary with a plurality of 48% of the vote over Rida Cabanilla, Dolfo Ramos, and Gerald Vidal. Gabbard then defeated Republican Alfonso Jimenez in the election, 65%–35%. In 2004, Gabbard filed for reelection, but then volunteered for Army National Guard service in Iraq, Cabanilla, who filed for a rematch, called on the incumbent to resign because she would not be able to represent her district from Iraq. Gabbard thus decided not to campaign for a term, and Cabanilla won the Democratic primary. In 2002, at the age of 21, Gabbard became the youngest legislator ever elected in Hawaiis history and she represented the Oahu 42nd District, which covers Waipahu, Honouliuli, and Ewa Beach
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Hawaii's 2nd congressional district
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Hawaiis 2nd congressional district is a congressional district in the U. S. state of Hawaii. The district encompasses all rural and most suburban areas of Oahu/Honolulu County, besides Honolulu, the district includes the counties of Kauai, Maui, Kalawao and Hawaii. The most populous community entirely within the district is Hilo, major segments of the economy include tourism, ranching and agriculture, especially pineapple and sugarcane cultivation. The district is represented by Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, when Hawaii and Alaska were admitted to the Union in 1959, both new states were granted one at-large Representative to Congress pending the next United States Census. In the reapportionment following the 1960 U. S. Census, instead of creating two congressional districts, the state continued to elect its U. S. Two representatives were first elected in 1962 and Hawaii was first represented by two U. S, Representatives on January 2,1963 upon the convening of the 88th Congress. The 2nd Congressional District was created in 1971 when Hawaii began electing its representatives from districts instead of electing an at-large U. S, historically, the 2nd Congressional District has been the more Democratic of the states two districts, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+21. In 2004, President George W. Bush received 44 percent of the vote in district to 56 percent for Democrat John Kerry. In 2008, Democrat and Hawaii native Barack Obama carried this district overwhelmingly with 73 percent of the vote. Under the U. S. Constitution, a candidate for this only has to be a resident of Hawaii. The first non-resident to be elected to this U. S. House seat was Ed Case, the home state office of the Second Congressional District is at the Prince Kuhio Federal Building near Honolulu Harbor. As of October 2015, there are three members of the U. S. House of Representatives from Hawaiis 2nd congressional district who are currently alive. Hawaiis congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C, the Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts, Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
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State of Hawaii