Spend That Money, Vought Is Watching
by Tom Yamachika, President, Tax Foundation Hawaii
For many years now, the federal government has provided Native Hawaiian Block Grants, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to help with housing issues surrounding our kanaka maoli. One of our biggest problems with that money is that we haven’t been using it. We have written about that issue before, most recently in 2022.
According to the Star-Advertiser, quoting U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, in May there was a $53.6 million unspent grant funding balance from prior years, not including a $22.3 million appropriation for the fiscal year that ended last month. The grants table on DHHL’s website shows an unspent balance for the 2015 program year and zero federal money drawn from subsequent years, but the grants table looks the same as it did when we last wrote about it in 2022.
In 2016, the Obama Administration zeroed out the grant because of the large unspent balance. After lots of hard work by our Congressional delegation, $2 million a year was restored during the first Trump Administration, and grants in the neighborhood of $22 million were secured in the last three years.
Enter Russell Vought, head of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
The federal government in its 2026 budget has proposed to eliminate the grant. They aren’t talking about reducing it. They propose to get rid of it.
A fact sheet on the HUD website explains: “The Budget recognizes a greater role for State and local governments, the private sector, and nonprofits to address community and economic development needs in localities across the Nation.” Translation: “You’re on your own, suckers!”
Rep. Tokuda, no stranger to this problem because she saw it when she was Ways and Means Chair of the Legislature, summed it up nicely: “Sadly these carryover balances, and these high annual re-appropriations that they have, kind of made it low-hanging fruit for the Trump Administration. I know for beneficiaries it’s extremely frustrating because there’s so much need. … This was something that literally generations of members of Congress have fought for and protected, and now it’s going to be very difficult to defend why we need this money when they’re not spending it.”
Especially when we happen to be a bright blue state.
In the face of all of this, State Rep. Darius Kila, for one, argues that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands deserves our support rather than our scrutiny. “The Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant program exists because of an obligation. [DHHL] was established by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, a congressional act rooted in the recognition that Native Hawaiians were — and remain — entitled to the land, resources, and support necessary to restore their well-being and self-determination.”
Try telling that to Russell Vought.
In the meantime, we should be working to protect the unspent money that already has been appropriated to Native Hawaiian block grants. The folks in Washington, D.C. may already be thinking about zeroing that out, too. They can’t, you say? Take a look at USAID and foreign aid. The fact that money already has been appropriated won’t stop them from using their axe.
And, by the way, we need to take a look at other federal programs for which we can pull down funds but aren’t doing so. We better put that money to good use and be quick about it!