Posted on: Thursday, December 4, 2003

Lingle to focus on long-term care while in D.C.

Advertiser Staff

Gov. Linda Lingle will travel this weekend to Washington, D.C., to participate in a National Governors Association conference on long-term care.

Lingle, appointed by NGA chairman Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to the committee on long-term health care, said state Department of Health Director Chiyome Fukino and Department of Human Services Director Lillian Koller will accompany her to the conference. The governor said she is heading a subcommittee on community-based long-term care.

Lingle said while in Washington she also will meet with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to talk about issues including the possibility of locating a homeland security office in Hawai'i for the Pacific region. The governor also will meet with President Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, White House staff and several Republican senators.

Lingle's trip will also include a fund-raiser for herself in New York.

In February, Lingle traveled to Washington and lobbied Rove, the Department of the Interior, and the Justice Department about the Akaka bill, which would foster the creation of a U.S.-recognized Native Hawaiian government with some amount of sovereignty. She has said she will follow up on that issue during this month's trip.