U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda speaks with officials from Joint Task Force-Red Hill during a Congressional Delegation site visit to Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Halawa, Hawaii, on Feb. 23, 2023. Tokuda and other lawmakers visited Red Hill on a tour of several Pacific islands last month as Congress prepares to lay out its priorities amid geopolitical tensions. (Orlando Corpuz/U.S. Air National Guard)
(Tribune News Service) — Hawaii’s first-term U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda joined a contingent of lawmakers in June for a tour of Oahu, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan and Okinawa as Congress prepares to lay out its priorities amid geopolitical tensions.
House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers, R-Ala., led the delegation, made up mostly of members of the committee, including Tokuda, and leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Energy and Commerce committees.
“It was a really good opportunity to really just see how, at the end of the day, we are all connected,” Tokuda said. “A lot of times we talk about the Indo-Pacific generally, and really seeing how it all comes together from, you know, a strategic perspective, from a geopolitical perspective was really important.”
In Taiwan, the members of Congress met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and defense officials to discuss relations with China, security and the upcoming elections in January that could lead to huge changes in the island’s foreign policy.
A visit to Taiwan in 2022 by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi drew a stiff rebuke from China and a flurry of Chinese military activity around the island. Beijing considers self-ruled Taiwan to be a rogue province, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to bring it under Beijing’s control by military force if necessary. Some reports suggest he hopes to have Chinese forces able to do so by 2027.
The opposition Kuomintang party, which was originally formed by Chinese nationalists and favors closer ties to China, has framed the election as a choice between “peace and war.” Current Taiwanese Vice President Lai Ching-te is running to succeed Tsai as the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate and has framed the election as a choice between “democracy and autocracy.” He has vowed to form closer ties with democratic countries.
“You’ve got a critical transition coming up in their presidential election next year,” Tokuda said.
Rising tensions in the Pacific, particularly at sea, have prompted regional countries such as Japan and the Philippines — both of which are locked in territorial disputes with China — to increase defense spending and seek closer ties with the United States.
While Tokuda sees robust military alliances as key, she said that in conversations during her recent trip, people stressed that policymakers need to think more broadly about American engagement in the region.
“Really, what’s swirling in this region is the need for us to approach security, our relationships, our approaches, from a whole-government type of perspective — it’s not just defense,” Tokuda said.
The lawmakers arrived in Guam after Typhoon Mawar struck the northern part of the U.S. territory — including critical military installations — and surveyed the damage. Scientists have warned that as the climate changes, storms are becoming more powerful and more frequent.
Tokuda said the visit to Guam was an eye-opening look at the challenges Pacific island communities could face more of in coming years.
“It’s hurricane season, (and) we’re going into an El Nino year,” Tokuda said. “So I couldn’t help but constantly think about Hawaii when I was in Guam, and what do we need to do to be continuously resilient.”
In Hawaii, lawmakers toured military bases and learned about the unique challenges in maintaining infrastructure in the islands. Salty sea air causes constant corrosion to facilities, and having to ship all supplies and equipment adds further challenges. Tokuda said it was important for senior lawmakers to get a firsthand look.
“There’s nothing like seeing it to understand it, and then to get the urgency as to why we’ve got to do something about it,” Tokuda said. “So I was really glad that they were able to come to Hawaii.”
Tokuda said she has made infrastructure and maintenance major priorities for defense.
“We don’t do enough to invest in our infrastructure,” Tokuda said. “Ongoing repair and maintenance and deferred maintenance turns into extremely expensive capital projects later.”
Perhaps no endeavor underscores that more than current efforts to defuel and shut down the World War II-era Red Hill fuel facility, which currently stores 104 million gallons of fuel just 100 feet above a critical aquifer that most of Honolulu relies on for water.
The facility and the pipelines that connect it to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam had fallen into deep disrepair since it was built, despite Navy officials insisting it was safe and critical for operations for years. In November 2021, fuel from the facility contaminated the Navy’s water system, which serves 93,000 people, prompting a backlash that eventually forced the Pentagon to agree to shutter the facility.
Some mainland lawmakers have raised concerns that closing the facility will impede military readiness, but Pentagon officials say the military will be better off with a “distributed” fuel storage policy keeping fuel in different locations around the region rather than consolidating its strategic reserve in one place.
“We will always need to, as a delegation, be constantly diligent, right, on reminding people about the tragedy that was Red Hill,” Tokuda said.
Tokuda said mainland lawmakers who have suggested keeping Red Hill operational are gradually coming to understand the stakes of the defueling and the problems with the facility.
The Red Hill water crisis has prompted many residents to reassess their relationship with the military presence in Hawaii. Other toxic spills involving the military since have drawn heightened scrutiny as the military prepares to renegotiate leases on state-owned lands it currently uses for training that expire in 2029.
Tokuda has pushed for provisions in Congress’ annual defense funding bill to appoint an official to oversee the land lease negotiations and to potentially provide training for incoming military personnel to Hawaii on local culture and customs. She also has pushed for provisions that would direct the Pentagon to study the military’s impact on Hawaii’s housing supply and private rental market.
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