Background

"I currently chair the Media, Arts, Science & Technology Committee and am vice-chair of the Business & Economic Development Committee. Over the past decade and a half, my passion has been investing in Hawaii’s youth and expanding Hawaii's knowledge-based industries.

My goal is to help build the kind of economy in which people who love Hawaii can come home. Almost every day, someone tells me about a family member or close friend who had to leave Hawaii to find challenging work with good wages. Or retirees who have relocated because the cost of living is cheaper in Las Vegas or in the Midwest… people don’t particularly want to leave, they just feel that they must in order to survive…

After many years of effort, Hawaii is finally beginning to achieve critical mass in transitioning its economy from one that relies upon low-skilled, low-paying jobs, to a dynamic, globally-competitive one."

Senator Fukunaga serves on several National Conference of Legislature committees that deal with state and federal issues regarding e-commerce, telecommunications, high technology and information privacy. In 2006, she is a member of the Policy Committee of the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, the 2006 Identity Theft Task Force, Invasive Species Task Force, the advisory board of the Sex Abuse Treatment Center, Historic Hawaii Foundation, and Roosevelt Alumni Association.

In 1995, she was one of three public sector members of President Clinton’s National Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee (NII AC), which launched the campaign to link the nation’s schools, libraries and rural communities to the Internet. Her efforts in the technology arena resulted in the first online access to legislative information, the nation’s only Public Access Room and Hawaii public schools’ broadband connectivity. 

Senator Fukunaga has served in the State Senate since 1992, and in the House of Representatives during four prior terms. A graduate of the first graduating class of University of Hawaii's William Richardson School of Law, she is a proud alumni of Hawaii's public schools.