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Hawaii: Senior Senator Sen. Daniel Inouye (D) Last Updated July 9, 2003
The largest figure in Hawaii's public life remains Senator Daniel K. Inouye, who has held elective office here since Hawaii attained statehood in 1959, and before. Inouye (pronounced in-NO-ay) grew up in Honolulu, the son of Japanese immigrants; his ambition was to become a surgeon. He served in the 442d Regimental Combat Team in World War II, in which capacity he earned 15 medals and citations and, in the last days of the war, lost his right arm. Unsure of what to do, recovering in a Michigan veterans' hospital, he asked a Kansas veteran whose right arm had been shattered what his plans were; the man said he was going to law school, would run for the legislature and "when the opportunity presents itself, I am going to Congress": It was Bob Dole. They served together two years in the House and 28 in the Senate. Inouye graduated from the University of Hawaii and George Washington University Law School, then became a leader of a group of young veterans who took over Hawaii's creaking Democratic party. He was elected to the territorial legislature in 1954, the House in 1959, and the Senate in 1962. He was keynoter at the turbulent 1968 Democratic National Convention, a tenacious member of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973-74 and the first chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in 1976. Inouye believes in the Senate, the Democratic Party, Hawaii, the armed services, and Native Americans--among other things. He is the third most senior member of the Senate, after Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy. In June 2000 he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Inouye is chairman of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and the second ranking Democrat on Appropriations; the committee's ranking Republican is Ted Stevens of Alaska, which gives enormous clout to two senators in office since the 1960s from the two states most recently admitted to the Union, both with their own special claims on the federal government. Inouye's voting record has generally been very liberal, but not always. On foreign and defense issues he is close to the center of the Senate. He and Hawaii colleague Daniel Akaka were two of the four Democrats who joined all Republicans in 1998 in seeking to deploy a ballistic missile defense system; the Clinton administration's opposition to deployment was based in part on an intelligence estimate that there will be no missile threat within the next 10 years to the continental 48 states--which seems to exclude Hawaii and Alaska from the ''common defense'' the Constitution promises. He has opposed the Bush administration also on occasion, as when in January 2003 he and Stevens characterized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's decision to defer funding for two Army Stryker combat brigades as contrary to laws passed by Congress. He took great umbrage in September 2002 when George W. Bush, speaking about the homeland security bill while campaigning in New Jersey, said, "The House responded, but the Senate is more interested in special interests in Washington and not interested in the security of the people." Perhaps taking this as a comment about those who opposed military action in Iraq, Inouye said, "This is a time when we should be working together, debating this issue. It is American to question the president. It is American to debate the issue." Inouye has long used his seat on Appropriations to fund projects he finds worthy, from his alma mater of George Washington University to native Hawaiian education. In 1999 Hawaii received $800 million in federal spending, and in 2000, $1.25 billion, most of it from the military budget, which is to say it passes through Inouye's subcommittee. In 2002 the defense appropriation included $257 million for projects in Hawaii, including $202 million to refurbish Pearl Harbor. That year also saw the opening of a $56 million FAA Honolulu Control Facility which gathered together facilities scattered over the metropolitan area. He helped to persuade the Navy that the U.S.S. Missouri's final berth would be at Pearl Harbor and got $4.5 million for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Hilo. He has proudly earmarked projects for Hawaii in the defense appropriations bill; the December 2000 bill included $41 million for ocean resources and marine research--$1 million to the Pacific Coastal Services Cooperative Center, $8 million to convert the Adventurous, a mothballed Navy vessel, to a high-endurance fisheries and oceanographic research vessel, $13.5 million for the East-West Center at University of Hawaii. Like his colleague and friend Ted Stevens, Inouye takes a kind of proprietary interest in the public policy of his home area, with a sense of responsibility for its long-term development and character. Seemingly small matters can get Inouye's attention: in 2001 he sponsored a bill to exempt from the airline ticket tax the fees charged to shuttle military personnel on helicopters to cleanup on Kahoolawe. Inouye chaired the Indian Affairs Committee from 1989-94 and again in 2001, and was moved by their tragic history. He described his reaction: "By God, did we do all these things? We should be embarrassed and ashamed of ourselves." After the BIA gave tribal recognition to the Eastern Pequots of Connecticut, Christopher Dodd and Joe Lieberman tried to get a one-year moratorium on recognition of new tribes. Inouye vigorously opposed them and prevailed 80-15; one newspaper noted that Inouye's counsel was married to the chief counsel of the Eastern Pequots. Inouye evidently sees many analogies between the condition of mainland Indians and Native Hawaiians. He was a co-sponsor of the 1993 law in which the United States apologized for overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy. He supported the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and in 2000 finally secured funding for Native Hawaiians purchasing property in the Home Lands, the 200,000 acres set aside in 1920 for a permanent homeland for Native Hawaiians. He secured reauthorization of Native Hawaiian health care programs in 2000, but did not succeed in giving it entitlement status. On the heated issue of Native Hawaiian sovereignty, some Native Hawaiian activists consider him lukewarm. In October 1999, Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Mililani Trask attacked him with vile insults; Inouye said he was saddened. In 2000 and 2002, he and colleague Daniel Akaka did not succeed in getting through the Senate Akaka's bill granting Indian tribe status to native Hawaiians and a "government-to-government" relation with the federal government. Some Republican senators objected, and its prospects seem dim while George W. Bush is president; the measure was reintroduced again in February 2003. On the Commerce Committee, Inouye was long involved in communications issues and tends to favor government regulation over markets. He backed cable reregulation and was pleased that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 imposed a competition checklist for local services on the Regional Bells before they could enter the long-distance market. In June 2001 Inouye substituted for Harry Reid (who recused himself) in the uncongenial post of chairman of the Ethics Committee and presided over the hearings on Bob Torricelli's acceptance of gifts and loans from David Chang. In July 2002 the committee "severely admonished" Torricelli, but declined to make public the testimony. Inouye acted well before the election, taking the unexceptionable view that action just before an election would be unfair. But the testimony was made public in September in a separate lawsuit and had a devastating effect on Torricelli's political fortunes. Honolulu is a long two flights from Washington, and Inouye's local influence has varied, but is generally great. He is part of the faction of Hawaii's Democratic party that held the governorship from 1962 to 2002. In 2002 he vigorously supported Lieutenant Governor Mazie Hirono in her nearly successful attempt to extend this 40-year string. "We are fighting for our political lives!" he bellowed to the state Democratic convention. And he seemed to be criticizing her primary rivals, including Ed Case who is now 2d District congressman, who campaigned for change in state government, when he said, "We cannot allow stupid and self-serving members of our party to tarnish our accomplishments." He has complained that the Bush administration was not consulting him on Hawaii judicial nominations. Inouye has always been re-elected by wide margins. His greatest trouble came in 1992, when Republican Rick Reed ran an ad with tapes of a woman who was long Inouye's barber making charges about events many years before. On Election Day, Inouye won with a much reduced percentage, 57%, to 27% for Reed and 14% for the Green Party's Linda Martin. In 1998 he faced less controversy. In October, Republican Crystal Young alleged that actress Shirley MacLaine implanted electromagnetic needles in her. Inouye won 79%-18%. He seems likely to win re-election again, if he runs, in 2004; if Inouye does not run again, Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the seat.
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