Senator Mazie Hirona donates her salary during gov't shutdown

HAWAII'S Senator Mazie K. Hirono announced that she will donate pay she receives during the partial government shutdown to food banks in all four counties across Hawaii.
“More than 2,500 federal workers in Hawaii are either furloughed or working without pay during the holidays because Donald Trump shut down the government,” Senator Hirono said. “As long as Donald Trump refuses to re-open the government, I will be donating my salary to Hawaii’s food banks – who serve nearly one in eight Hawaii residents in need.”

Hirono, 71, will divide her salary between the Hawaii Food Bank on Oahu and Kauai, Maui Food Bank, and Hawaii Food Basket on the Big Island.

It's not the first time Hirona has donated her salary. During the January 2018 shutdown, Hirono donated her salary to Hawaii’s 14 Federally Qualified Community Health Centers.

During the 2013 government shutdown, Senator Hirono donated her salary to Lanakila Pacific, Hawaii Meals on Wheels, the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council, Kauai Economic Opportunity, and Hale Mahaolu.

Hirono, who receives a salary of $174,000 a year, has earned $3,500 in the week since the shutdown began.

Hirono's announcement comes a week after Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said she will donate her salary to charity while part of the federal government is shut down.

“I cannot take a salary during a government shutdown knowing that so many federal workers in Nevada and across the country will go without pay,” Cortez Masto tweeted shortly after the shutdown began last weekend. “I’ll be donating my salary to a Nevada charity for every day of the Trump shutdown."

North Dakota's senators — Republican John Hoeven and Democrat Heidi Heitkamp — have also said they will donate their paychecks to charity during the shutdown, although Heitkamp time in Congress ended Dec. 31. GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer, who defeted Heitkamp for the new Congress, reportedly dismissed the move as a gimmick.

The government shutdown affecting about 800,000 government employees began Dec. 20 before Trump refused to sign a funding bill because it did not contain funding funding for a wall along the southern border with Mexico. With the House and Senate on break, the shutdown will last until the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3 and probably beyond.

When the new session of Congress does get underway, Democrats will assume control of the House and have insisted that they will not give into the president's demands.
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