Hawai‘i Representatives voted in line with their party Monday on pair of largely uncontroversial bills.
The two measures the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Monday were a proposal to streamline paperwork for veterans and to strengthen a trans-Pacific security alliance.
Both Hawai‘i Representatives, Democrats Ed Case and Jill Tokuda, voted in support of both bills.
The Simplifying Forms for Veterans Claims Act is a Republican-introduced bill that requires the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to assess each of the forms the department sends to claimants and determine how they can be made clearer and better-organized.
The bill had support on both sides of the aisle, with California Rep. Mark Takano (D) saying that veterans repeatedly complain that “they cannot make heads or tails out of some of the forms necessary to address veterans’ benefits,” and that small changes to those forms can meaningfully improve veterans’ lives even while lawmakers pursue larger programmatic changes.
The bill passed 386-1, with the single naysayer being South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman (R).
Case and Tokuda also voted in favor of the second bill, the Strengthening the Quad Act. That bill concerns the U.S.’ involvement in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also called the Quad, a coalition between the U.S., Japan, Australia and India.
The measure requires the U.S. Department of State to develop a strategy for “bolstering engagement and cooperation with the Quad … to promote broad-based and inclusive economic growth, technology cooperation, energy innovation, and resilient supply chains.”
This bill passed 334-51. All but one of the negative votes were from Republicans, with the lone Democratic opponent being Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Both bills next go to the U.S Senate.
