Case Releases Statement Following the Governor's Announcement on Reopening Trans-Pacific Travel

Statement

Congressman Ed Case released the following statement with the announcement this afternoon from Governor David Ige on his plans to reopen trans-Pacific airline travel August 1st:

"It is tragic that the U.S. Department of Justice at the direction of Attorney General Barr would cripple the best public health outcome in the country and risk the lives of Hawai"i residents and visitors alike and our economic recovery for the interests of out-of-state owners of Hawai"i properties and visitors who feel inconvenienced by the difficult measures we have taken.

"It was the President himself who (way too late) declared a public health emergency on March 13th. Governor Ige's quarantine order of April 1st, affecting resident and visitors equally, was a scientific state-of-the-art response on protecting public safety in a pandemic, and his modification today to adopt the Alaska model is a responsible and appropriate way forward to both preserve our public health gains and safely reopen our economy.

"If people want to visit Hawai"i without regard to our public health, don't come. If non-residents bought property here but don't want to follow the same rules we're all living by, sell and buy somewhere else."

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