that is what is so unique about it. it is the whole story of slavery , encapsulated in one piece. we know everything about these people and what happened. >> the last slave ship, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's human day. -- q and a. >> david has served as hawaii's governor and he gave his annual state of the state address from the state capital. this is 40 minutes. minutes. >> good morning and aloha. before i begin by formal remarks, i wanted to make a few comments. in normal sometimes we would gather together in the house

chambers for the state of the state address. we would have family, friends, former governors and community leaders and have opportunity to access and think the many people who have helped us along the way. because of the pandemic i, they cannot be here in person. but i wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation for their partnership during this crisis. all of them have answered the call to serve people of hawaii. speaker scott syke, chair sylvia lu and all the members of the00 senate president ron cole chief. senator della cruz and all of the members of the senate. first lady dawn -- lieutenant governor josh green. dr. libby char and all the members of my cap net and mayor

-- cabinet and mayor and former mayors. i also want to thanking the business community. the visitor industry including hotels, airlines and attractions. so the hawaii restaurant association. the hawaii business round table and all of the chambers of commerce. and our nonprofit partners who delivered help and services today to support so many in need. and there are so many others too many to name. but i wish i i could thank you all. please know that all of your efforts are very much appreciated by me. we've endured tremendous hardship over the last two years. throughout the pandemic, we've sacrificed delayed or cancelled

so many of life's mile stones, weddings and holiday gatherings. we've had to face shutdown. restrictions of all, and two varieties that is changed how we deal with the department and the fight is far from over. but i'm proud of the way that we as the community have responded to the pandemic. our nurse, doctors and healthcare professionals have worked endless shifts to provide quality care and keep our families healthy. our teachers and principles have gone above and beyond to make sure students have the opportunity to learn despite the many inches. our public employees on the county and state level have worked together to insure that we keep everyone safe.

and you have done what you've had to do to protect all of us by getting vaccinated and conducting your call they lives responsibly. this pandemic is redefying us as a generation. in the same way that the great depression pearl harbor and the vietnam war shape their generations. evens in history have a way of repeatedly testing us. each generation, must find its own strength, its own answers and it's own passport. >> in many answer answer thes. we've had to choose between what is best for ourselves as individual. >> and what is best for ourselves as a community. >> as a state, we've never been one to take the easy path. instead, we choose to do the right thing for right reason.

last week, we celebrated martin lutherking day. he said the time is always right to do what's right. in hawaii, we have a name for this. pono or righteousness. >> an idea so important that it's imprinted on our state seal. the life of the land is perpetuateed in righteousness. we have much to do this session. i have three goals this year. to continue to steer us through the pandemic, to strengthen our families and communities and to move toward full economic recovery. with your help, i know we can accomplish all three. i believe everything begins with keeping us healthy and safe.

over the last seven years, we focus on modernizing our telehealth infrastructure providing health services to urn served populations and strengthening mental health services. the prompter went blank.

in response to the pandemic, we move quickly to take immediate action to protect our health. provide healthcare for another 110,000 residents under our medicaid program. a 34% increase since the start of the pandemic. and make sure that everyone had good healthcare coverage. at the same time, we distributed critical medical supplies including p.p.e.'s, test kits, vaccines and medicines to protect the elderly rural

communities as well as entire states. i deeply appreciate the thousands involved in this task whose scale and complexity rivals anything we've ever done statewide. vaccinations have proven to be our strongest weapon against coronavirus. in all, we provided more than 2.5 million shots at hundreds of clinics across the state. needless to say this effort remains ongoing. but the virus has been relentless in exposing our healthcare infrastructure including shortages of doctors and nurses. we're asking the legislature to fund the expansion of the university of hawaii doctor-residency program in this away, we can increase the number of doctors during their

residency on the neighbor island from only five to 50. more importantly, the numbers tell us that most young doctors end up practicing where they do their residency. we're also asking for funding to strengthen the university's nursing program and add more clinical instruction -- instructors at our community colleges. we want to add 39 lectureer across multiple campuses to handle tin crease demand for nursing programs. in addition a new $3.7 million federally funded project will improve access to health information especially for underserved communities. the project will train and employ high school and undergraduate students to be health and digital navigators in 50 libraries across the state. these navigators will help

individuals access telehealth services and find information on the coronavirus and other help topics. covid outbreaks in the what hugh community correctional center made it clear that we also need to strengthen the medical facilities in our prison to protect the health of our inmates, staff and the general public. our plans to relocate triple ctu halaba will be better suited to support the behavorial, mental health and medical needs of its population in our current budget request, we've asked the legislature for $45 million to build a consolidated healthcare unit at halaba that will allow us to deliver medical and health services there.

clearly, the coronavirus has shown us how persistent and adaptive it can be as we've seen with the delta and only -- omicron variant. while we work to maintain our health, we must strengthen our families and communities. to do that, we must first help struggling families. make things right for them. it means making sure they can secure the very basic of food, shelter and jobs. that's why our department of human services developed snap benefits formerly food stamps and added 32,000 additional families during the pandemic. as many face job losses, we provided $6. # billion in

unemployment benefits allowing those out of work to continue to receive essential income for their family. the pandemic also cause many workers to lose long-held jobs and pursue new career paths, to help them, the department of neighborhood is rolling out the hawaii career acceleration navigator with this one stop online hub to help unemployed workers with new career and training opportunities. the pandemic also highlighted the need for childcare for working families. and how it is essential for many to continue to hold jobs. to help them the state's childcare program office is distributing nearly $80 million to support access to childcare and provide much-needed relief for young families.

these funds will support businesses and can be used for personnel cost, training, rent, mortgage, utilities and supplies or equipment related to covid-19 to assist renters and home owners we've provided $260 million in emergency rent and morgan assistance, to insure that no family would be evicted because of the pandemic. meanwhile, the hawaiian homes commission postponed mortgage payments and provide its ben fish areas rent and utility assistance. the state is also working closely with the counties to increase the number of affordable rentals on all islands. these projects include rentals in downtown or chinatown on oahu

and more than 1,000 rental units across across the neighbor island since we took office. two years ago, the legislature created ohana zone. working with the county, we've opened 20 sights across all islands that provide a wide range of services for individuals and families. these projects have assisted over 5, 500 homeless individuals statewide with more than 1300 placed directly into permanent housing. while increasing funding for the homeless by 68% since taking office, we've assisted more individuals to not only find temporary shelter, but to list them out of the vicious cycle of homelessness. and our proposed infrastructure development in west oahu will allow us to greatly increase our inventory of affordable homes

including those for teachers. but the biggest factor affecting homeownership in hawaii is supply. that's why we set out to build 10,000 new homes by 2020 and we did it. we also expect to build another 3,000 homes by the end of this year. we can strengthen our communities in another way too. given the recent revenue protections, we're asking the legislature to return some of those dollars back to taxpayers. we want to issue refund checks of $100 for every taxpayer and for each dependent. for our family of four that means an extra $400 in this way we'll inject $110 million back into our economy giving it a

boost as well. no community can be strong without taking care of their safety, our future. empowering our schools and enriching hawaiiees community of lifelong learners have always been around our top priorities. that's why i asked legislatures to restore funds taken away from our schools during the pandemic. for program so important to our children's learning and for the upkeep of their class rooms. this includes funds to take care of those who teach our students and to support new teachers especially in areas of chronic services such as hawaiian emersion and special needs. that's why safely reopening schools was one of our top priorities after the pandemic hit. we knew that children learn best

when they are physically in the classroom. but that wasn't possible. during the early days of the shutdown. our schools and teachers had to literally reinvent education over night. virtual class rooms became a necessity but we also learned that they could up applyment in-person classes and provide opportunity that is would not otherwise be available. that's why we're supporting the expansion of virtual classroom and hawaii virtual learning network. if a school on molokai can't provide a class on physics, why should a student there be denied the opportunity to learn? we've talked a long time about distance learning. but more as an alternative to the traditional classroom. the pandemic made us realize that we could use virtual classroom to insure that every

student has every opportunity to learn no matter where they live. using the federal governor's emergency education relief fund, we're also empowering schools and teachers to innovate and create projectses to recover learning loss due to the pandemic. we dedicated $5 million for u.h. to launch hawaii online portal for education, which is developing curriculum for distance learning and additional training for teachers. the projects include everything from stem education to agriculture. one of these projects is kau dream, a place based community focused education initiative on hawaii island. educators and the community have worked together to align the curriculum to career and business opportunities in kau.

they've created enhanced learning activities that will engage and inspire students beyond graduation. this community-led initiative is a model for building -- driving communities across the state. and it's time to retool our underutilized community resources. for generations our public libraries like the one in pearl city have been quietly supporting our students and communities. we want to reimagine how we used those facilities. we we want pearl city to be the role model for other libraries across the state. a group with people can meet and exchange new ideas. we want them to georgiaer in places for apuna. and we want to equipped them with the latest technology where

the community can learn, create, and enrich their lives. reimagine if you will -- pearl city library. becomeing a beehive as a community based learning center. there have been a lot of things we've had to postpone because of the pandemic. one of the most important was our proposal to create a universal pre-school system in hawaii. we can't live it there because research tells us that early learning is crucial in preparing our children for school and live in general. we'll continue to nurture our early learnings to our community based centers. but let's work together to take the next step to provide preschools for every child in hawaii.

the real balancing act during the pandemic has been between the economy and our health. the fact is that keeping us safe and making hawaii a safe place to visit is an essential step to restoring our visitor industry, reviving our small businesses. and re-energizing our economy. we ordered a mandatory quarantine for all trans pacific travelers to slow the parade of covid-19 in hawaii. and our safe travels program for pretravel testing and vaccine verification still remains the only program of its kind in the country. at the same time, we worked hard to keep insurance rates down or small businesses even as unemployment ballooned. and as the economy -- economy recovers, we'll continue to make

sure that our small businesses are brought along with the rising tide through programs that expand our locally produced goods and services, support business innovations, back local manufactures and fund low interest small business lones. with federal funds, the state is also helping small businesses through digital marketing and e-commerce initiatives assisting more than 500 companies with training and virtual marketing events. hawaii also became one of the safest locations to film during the pandemic. as our film office worked with producers and unions to create a plan with strict covid protocols to resume filming here. people all over the world cannot watch "ncis": hawaii, as well as

magnum p.i. we also know that keeping up cannot good enough to be come competitive. we must stay ahead of the game. that's why we're proposing to fortify the hawaii tourism authority and the hawaii convention center. support hawaii small business innovation research project and provide fuel for our business accelerator programs and manufacturing assistance grant. we'll also launch a $56 million state small business credit initiative to provide capital for local start-up tech companies. one of government's py roles is to support economic growth. our visitor industry cannot fit without reliable airports.

our stores cannot operate without efficient rules and harbors to transport goods. during an economic downturn, public works projects not only build critical infrastructure, but they also provided strong support to business, labor, and the economy. for the last few years, hawaii's construction industry has led to economic recovery, thanks to our investment in public investment and infrastructure. those help the local construction industry and with a record bond deal of $1.88 billion, this will will continue. we have an estimated $2.8 billion from the federal infrastructure law and is expected to further boost

transportation, clean energy, and internet capacity. the government also needs to reinvigorate itself. that is one of the most important tasks have been doing over the last seven years. transitioning from paper-based to computerized ones, modernizing our caps and payroll systems, and transforming walk-in services to convenient virtual centers. we are asking them to make our government more efficient by replacing the statewide system that has not been updated in the past 15 years. whether seeking a tax return or seeing a birth certificate, it has a larger return on -- and a better service to the public.

we cannot be a strong state without protecting the resources upon which we depend. that is also a part of being poor know and making things right. at the heart of the resources is our natural environment. in hawaii, we are no stranger to the needs of the islands. there is a reverent for the aina that goes beyond the issues of sustainability. that is why we are so protective of the environment. as an island community, we see the impact of climate change and global warming more intensely. in 2015, three categories for hurricanes approached hawaii for the first time in recorded history. in 20, torrential rain dropped more than 49 inches in 24 hours,

setting a new u.s. record. last year, the worst drought in decades in maui county drove thousands of invasive atmospheres into kahului. the drops on the island fueled the mono lulu wildfire. we know the climate crisis is real. by working together, hawaii has become a world leader in action for the climate crisis. hawaii was the first state to set a goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2045, with 12 other states now following our lead. hawaii was also the first state to commit by law to the goals of the paris agreement. the severe impact of climate change, we know that not zero carbon emissions is not good enough.

that is why hawaii became the first state to commit to a net negative goal by 2045 to capture more carbon than we produce. we will do that i protecting our oceans, expanding our native forests, and supporting sustainable agriculture. again, my thanks to our legislators for making all of this happen. but we need to continue this good work. we need to retire hawaii's last call plants this year, establish a rebate for working families to buy electric cars, expand the state to farm programs to support local farmers, and move forward with the royal cuneo agricultural farm, creating a more sustainable lifestyle is in all parts of being good stewards of these islands. so is protecting them from harm.

the recent events at the navy facility alarmed and shocked everyone. we met with navy leaders and let them know that their first job is to ensure that our drinking water stays safe and clean. draining the fuel tanks is a good fear step -- first step, but we must work to find long-term solutions. national security cannot come at the expense of our people's health. i believe we can protect both national security and public health, but it will take determination and the collaborative efforts of everyone. in the pandemic, we were forced to cut over $1 billion from the budget, which every state agency scrabbling to find new ways to continue to provide these central services to our

residents. more than that, we faced the prospect that it would take the economy decades to recover, describing our financial prospects back then as bleak would be an understatement. but we took the hard and necessary steps to address the things that threaten the life of our economy. the pandemic. many wanted us to immediately fix the symptoms of the problem, the devastated economy, but we needed to balance that with putting people's health first. it was the right remedy for the long-term to make things pono. when things seem to get better, we tempered our optimism, and we continued to do so with economics as well as health issues. as you had last month, we now

expect a positive balance within our budget of more than $1 billion. tax collections have jumped by 27.3% over last year's totals. that is a direct reflection of the visitor arrivals, increased consumer spending, and the growing strength of our local businesses. we have a chance to restore painful cuts that we made over the last two years to repay outstanding loans and to replenish various state funds, including loans to the unemployment trust fund, the safe depleted rainy day fund, and cuts from our schools and state agencies that provide cysts -- essential services to our people. we have a chance to safeguard our future and our children's future.

when we face another catastrophic emergency, will we be prepared to deal with it? for the first time in a long time, we have the resources to take care of both are immediate and long-term needs. we can rebuild the solid foundation that we created before the pandemic. we also have a chance to pursue new initiatives, including the development of an all-inclusive rod band infrastructure -- broadband infrastructure. it is about the crucial rule that the internet plays in all of our daily lives. that is why we are leveraging state resources to maximize feather role funding -- federal funding for projects and proposing the largest investment in technology in our state. a total of more than $400 million.

we are calling it spreading of the sun's raise. it is connecting the future and connecting all of the main hawaiian islands. this initiative will not only close the digital divide between the have and have-nots, but strengthen us as a community. we also launched the affordable productivity program, which extends federal emergency broadband benefits to those who would otherwise not be able to afford internet service. it is estimated that more than 100,000 hawaiian families will be able to qualify for services under this program. more than that, we have a chance to equip every business and family with this incoming tide to take everyone with us, whether we are talking about business growth, rear

opportunities, health care, or education. in spite of the strengthening economy, there are still many businesses on the brink of failure. and many families who are struggling to make ends meet. we cannot leave them behind. as a community, it is not in our nature to leave them behind. the tide is rising and it should lift all of us. hawaii is unique. our geography, our people, and our history. as the only island state in the nation and as animating -- amazing multicultural community, we celebrate our diversity. this distinction is at the heart of how we govern. there is no one-size-fits-all way of governing. that is why we are a government

of the people, by the people, and for the people. that is not just a cliche, but a message that our government should reflect and respond to that diversity. this is also what has directed and shaped my decisions. it has been one of my greatest challenges. there is a popular local saying, keep the country country. in a narrative that is propelling us through unprecedented changes and challenges, how do we keep hawaii hawaii? how do you sustain and nurture what makes us us? how do you do that, even as we must change to meet the tide? how do you make things pono for everyone? like our response to the pandemic, there is no easy answer.

but i believe it lies somewhere deep within all of us who call hawaii home. it lies in our willingness to share, to give even when we have very little to give. it is tucked deep within our desires to lift and lighten the burden of others. it is our belief that we are part of a greater ohana and we have the responsibility to our community. we are all connected. it has taken generations, stretching back to those key voyageurs to create this wonderful sense of community. there are some who fear that we are in danger of losing it through the many changes that we have entered. -- endured. from my vantage point, i feel a

hawaii that remains strong and true to itself. i see families come together, even when they cannot physically get together. i see a generation reaching down to take hold of younger ones, and the young reaching up for guidance. something we have always done here in the islands. i see a hawaii that has been tested and tested, over and over again during this pandemic. we may have been, but we did not break. i believe in hawaii, and its people, and its purpose. when we worked together, we can do great things, like those i talked about today to help all those who are struggling, to make ends meet, whether it is one dollar or $400, to provide health care for working parents. and to create a broadband

network that includes everyone in every community across the state. i am proud of the work that we do. i am proud to be your governor. for all that you do and all that you are, my thanks. >> 2019 a reporter discovered the remains of a slave ship in a swamp outside of mobile, alabama. tonight on q&a mr. raines talks about his last slave ship that details the history of the ship and how it why -- and why it transported 110 slaves to alabama in 1860 more than 50 years after the transatlantic slave trade was outlawed. >> we have the whole story and

it serves as a proxy for everyone in the u.s. whose families arrived in the holes >> ulls of a ship. these millions of people who were stolen from africa and spread all over the world. that is what is unique about it. it is the story of slavery on encapsulated. we know everything about these people and what happened to them. >> tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span q&a. you can listen to q&a and all our podcasts on our c-span now out. -- cap. -- app. >> this week the house and senate are in session. the senate will vote on nominations including the

university of pennsylvania president amy gutman to serve as u.s. ambassador to germany and the president of the exported bank. on tuesday two hearings for white house budget director and deputy director. at 2:00 a.m. eastern on c-span they will appear before the senate homeland security committee. at 2:30 p.m. eastern live on c-span.org and the c-span now cap they will testify before the senate budget committee. on thursday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three former employees of dissident washing -- of the washington football team testify about harassment, abuse, and discrimination in the organization days after the team is to announce its new name. watch live on c-span or c-span now our mobile video app. had to c-span.org for scheduling information or to stream video live or on-demand anytime. c-span, you aran