{"id":1447987,"date":"2022-04-20T15:26:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T19:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1447987"},"modified":"2022-04-20T15:26:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T19:26:43","slug":"congressmans-airline-income-while-pressing-related-expenses-proxy-voting-warrants-ethics-probe-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/congressmans-airline-income-while-pressing-related-expenses-proxy-voting-warrants-ethics-probe-watchdog\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressman\u2019s Airline Income While Pressing Related Expenses, Proxy Voting, Warrants Ethics Probe: Watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcongressmans-airline-income-while-pressing-related-expenses-proxy-voting-warrants-ethics-probe-watchdog%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1447987&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A congressman\u2019s sponsorship of bills that affect the aviation industry \u2014 while pulling income from the largest commercial flight operator in Hawaii, as well as \u201cabuse of proxy vote\u201d \u2014 warrants an ethics investigation, a watchdog group said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>When first elected to Congress last January, Hawaii Democrat Rep. Kaiali\u02bbi Kahele joined the transportation and infrastructure committee and its aviation subcommittee. The congressman, 48, still works as a pilot for Hawaiian Airlines, according to his spokesperson. Last year, he co-sponsored four bills related to aviation that his employer lobbied for.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe employment relationship is one that would, at a minimum, give the appearance the Member was unable to act impartially or that the employer has special access to the Member,\u201d The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) <a href=\"https:\/\/65db7681-e755-4cff-abe7-1d9e373df4db.usrfiles.com\/ugd\/65db76_d037339ae7ff4905959bfe3afb010284.pdf\">wrote<\/a> to the office of congressional ethics in a letter.<\/p>\n<p>Kahele earned roughly $120,000 in 2020 as a pilot, <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2022\/04\/13\/politics\/kai-kahele-proxy-voting-hawaiian-airlines-pilor\/index.html\">according<\/a> to House disclosures. He said further that he made $29,000 last year from Hawaiian Airlines and roughly $2,800 so far in 2022. Kahele is also still an \u201cactive member\u201d of the airline\u2019s union, The Air Line Pilots Association union, and \u201cis a certified commercial pilot and active member of Hawaiian Airlines,\u201d his spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoreover, this is a case where a stricter conflict of interest analysis applies because Kahele is cosponsoring legislation and taking action as a committee member that directly affects his outside employer, which is further evidenced by Hawaiian Airlines lobbying on the bills Kahele cosponsored and the subject matter of the committee,\u201d the watchdog also wrote.<\/p>\n<p>From February to September 2021, four bills Kahele co-sponsored were The National Aviation Preparedness Plan Act, The Saracini Enhanced Aviation Safety Act, The Healthy Flights Act, and The Sustainable Skies Act.\u00a0A Hawaii news outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/2022\/04\/has-us-rep-kai-kahele-given-up-on-washington\/\">reported<\/a> in April that Kahele has overwhelmingly voted by proxy this year and spends very little time in Washington, D.C., which FACT wants investigated.<\/p>\n<p>Kahele has cast 120 votes by proxy since his five in-person votes in January, according to his voting record \u2014 meaning one of his colleague\u2019s votes on his behalf. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) green-lit proxy voting, but the Senate requires in-person votes.<\/p>\n<p>The Hawaii Democrat claimed in a letter to a House clerk that he is \u201cunable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber\u201d because of the pandemic. But Kahele\u2019s presence on social media indicates he is not quarantining and attending public gatherings.<\/p>\n<p>While voting by <a href=\"https:\/\/clerk.house.gov\/legislative\/proxy-letters\/117\/2\/votes\/2022\/roll82.pdf\">proxy<\/a> on March 18, the congressman was giving a speech in Makua, Hawaii, according to his Twitter. Similarly, Kahele voted by proxy on February 4 while at a state park and a farm.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Kahele did not respond to a Daily Wire request for comment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cFor each of his 120 proxy votes, Kahele stated he was \u2018unable to physically attend\u2019 House proceedings due to the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d FACT writes in its letter. \u201cHowever, it clearly appears that was not the reason Kahele did not vote in person for approximately three months. Rather, seemingly it was because he was attending other public and political events during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The House ethics committee did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same? <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/utm.io\/ueuP8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Become a member now and join our mission<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A congressman\u2019s sponsorship of bills that affect the aviation industry \u2014 while pulling income from the largest commercial flight operator in Hawaii, as well as \u201cabuse of proxy vote\u201d \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":1447990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1447987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1447990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}