During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) spoke about potential spread of the invasive Brown Tree Snake in Hawaii due to DOGE cuts to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, over the past two months, we have seen chaos unleashed across our country
00:10as Donald Trump and Elon Musk take a chainsaw to our federal government, firing thousands
00:19of federal workers en masse with no explanation.
00:24More firings to come.
00:27I suspect by the time they're through, if they are ever through, hundreds of thousands
00:33of federal employees will be fired.
00:37Rather than making government more efficient, these indiscriminate cuts are gutting our
00:44government from the inside out, effectively eliminating crucial programs and offices.
00:51And while Republicans shamefully paint hard-working federal workers as faceless bureaucrats, we
01:00know that our federal workers do important work.
01:04From ensuring Social Security checks go up, to providing care for veterans, and so much
01:11more.
01:13And ever since, every state has individual federal employees doing critical work, often
01:20work that goes unseen.
01:25In Hawaii, for example, Fish and Wildlife Service employees are responsible for keeping
01:30invasive species out of our state.
01:35Once invasive species arrive in our islands, it is often impossible to eradicate them.
01:44That is why the work of these employees are so important.
01:51Last month, the Trump administration fired a Fish and Wildlife Service employee whose
01:57job was to keep one particular invasive species, the brown tree snake, out of our state.
02:10You can see, Mr. President, it is pretty ferocious.
02:14This picture depicts a brown tree snake eating a bird whole.
02:21Native to Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, the brown tree snake was accidentally
02:28introduced to Guam during World War II, and has been wreaking havoc on that island ever
02:35since.
02:37One of the most destructive invasive species in the world, the brown tree snake is responsible
02:43for the extinction of at least a dozen animal species in Guam, including many of the island's
02:52forest-dwelling birds and native lizards.
02:57But the snake didn't stop at birds and lizards.
03:01It also went after Guam's native bats, domestic poultry, even pets.
03:09As its population grew, the brown tree snake began invading power facilities, causing short
03:16circuits and frequent power outages.
03:20To this day, brown tree snakes cause nearly 200 outages a year in Guam, costing $4.5 million
03:30each year in what they're doing, wind repairs.
03:38You can imagine what kind of havoc, lost productivity by the millions.
03:45And despite years of various attempts to control the brown tree snake, as of 2020, 2024, Guam's
03:56population of brown tree snakes is estimated to be in the millions.
04:04Sadly, it is highly unlikely that this invasive and destructive species will ever be fully
04:12eliminated from Guam.
04:15Thankfully, the snake does not yet exist in Hawaii or anywhere in the continental U.S.,
04:24but that is not by accident or chance.
04:30It is because of the tireless work of federal employees from several agencies that has kept
04:37this snake out of Hawaii.
04:40Since the creation of the brown tree snake program nearly 20 years ago, not a single
04:47brown tree snake has been found in Hawaii because the program works.
04:53The federal investment in equipment, training, and hiring personnel works.
05:00Several agencies, including the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture,
05:06and the Department of Defense work together on the research, interdiction, and management
05:16of the brown tree snake.
05:19But the firing of just one individual who served as a brown tree snake program coordinator
05:25in Hawaii threatens to nullify all of that successful work.
05:32This individual was responsible for ensuring that biosecurity protocols were being followed
05:40and coordinating amongst the different agencies involved in the program.
05:44And he has been doing this for a number of years.
05:48He has the expertise to do this well, to keep this snake out of Hawaii.
05:53He oversaw the implementation of the brown tree snake program for the entire Pacific
05:59region.
06:02And as I give this speech today, his position, eliminated for no good reason by Musk and
06:11Trump, his position to this day remains vacant.
06:17And as we know, there is a hiring freeze imposed by the president also.
06:22So if he is not reinstated, the likely scenario will be that it will not be a matter of if
06:29brown tree snakes are introduced to Hawaii, but when.
06:35And let's be clear, if this snake makes it to Hawaii, I fear it is only a matter of time
06:44before it reaches the rest of our country.
06:48Trump and Elon Musk think they can just take a chainsaw to our federal workforce and budget,
06:55hacking away with no consequences.
06:59But in 10 years, when brown tree snakes have decimated Hawaii's ecosystem and wreaked havoc
07:08in other states across our country, it will obviously be too late.
07:15Mr. President, the brown tree snake is a real threat that Hawaii takes seriously.
07:22And in every state across our country, red and blue alike, there are federal workers
07:29doing critical, often unseen work to protect the health, safety and well-being of our communities.
07:40Critical federal employees.
07:44Firing these employees will inevitably make our country and our communities less safe,
07:50less prosperous and more vulnerable to outside threats.
07:55From foreign governments to invasive species and everything in between.
08:01I stand ready to work with anyone serious about making our government more efficient,
08:07but these cuts are having the opposite effect.
08:11I urge my Republican colleagues to join me in standing up for the critical federal programs
08:17in these states, in our states, and to the well-being of the American people.
08:25By rejecting this administration's attacks on our government and the people who keep
08:32it working and who protect our communities.
08:36Mr. President, I yield back.