HONOLULU (KHON2) — A Hawaii congressman is pushing for a shipping exception to help with living costs in the islands by introducing legislation to get Hawaii excluded from the Jones Act, which mandates that all cargo shipping between United States ports occur exclusively on U.S., not foreign, flagged vessels.
“First of all isn’t it about the cost of living? Isn’t that what most of us are concerned about at the end of the day? It’s the cost of living and the incredibly crushing cost of living here in Hawaii in particular,” Rep. Case said.
The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Congressman James Moylan (R-Guam). Rep. Case says the century-old law is unfair to islands within the United States orbit.
“Basically says let Hawaii and our island areas go. Hey continent, if you want to keep the Jones Act up to you, you guys keep it, but you are punishing us because we happen to be island states.”
He believes the law creates a monopoly on shipping and rates that get passed down to consumers.
“Let’s take a concrete example here. A dozen eggs in the store we all know there are incredible prices,” Rep. Case said. “Let’s say the average is somewhere between $9 and $10 right now. California $6. So that’s $3, where does that $3 go to? 1/3 of the cost of a dozen eggs is in shipping. Those are shipping rates that are set by a monopoly that’s created by federal law. There’s no competition on those shipping rates from California to Hawaii, no competition at all. Matson, and Pasha, they set whatever rates they want. International shipping is out there, thousands and thousands of ships that would be willing to take that carton of eggs between California and Hawaii for a competitive price. Actually, less than half of that $3. Right there and then take that and extrapolate that to other things like the cost of building a house. Every single thing that’s in a house comes from the continent. Could we get that for half the price of shipping? That differential adds an incredible burden to everyone in Hawaii.”
This comes as egg prices soar, meanwhile, the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by the world’s richest man Elon Musk, slashed federal workers overseeing the bird flu outbreak. 25 Percent of USDA personnel, including scientists in nearly five dozen US labs, have been let go. Thousands of other USDA employees were also informed today that they will also lose their jobs. The latest government data shows the current outbreak of avian flu is responsible for the death of at least 100 million birds since 2022.
“Many of those actions are straight out illegal and they’re illegal because they’re trying to cut off federal funding that’s already been passed into law, already signed by a President, a federal judge has said so,” Rep. Case said. “They’re ignoring the federal judge’s orders right now so we’re not having this money coming to Hawaii in key areas number 1. There are 50 plus lawsuits at this point against the actions of this President and Mr. Musk and the DOGE,”
Over the weekend President Trump posted to social media “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” bringing much concern about the boundaries that the US Constitution can hold. Rep. Case is concerened that a lack of checks from Congress will put stress on the judiciary as the lone branch to hold the administration to account.
“From the perspective of Congress, unfortunately, my Republican majority colleagues, and this is really tragic it’s not just unfortunate because Congress is the check and balance on the President, congress must check and balance the President. This Republican majority has decided not to check and balance this President at all. So the only recourse at this point is in the court system itself. As we’ve seen Mr. Musk and the President and the Vice President have said that the federal courts are not doing a good job. I think they have to do their job right now because otherwise there’s no guardrails.”