{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/schatz-congratulates-keone-nakoa-and-summer-sylva-on-appointments-to-interior-department", "Schatz Congratulates Keone Nakoa And Summer Sylva On Appointments To Interior Department", "2021-09-01", "2021", "2021-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Brian Schatz", "S001194", "www.schatz.senate.gov", "schatz", "https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2018i), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, released the following statement congratulating Keone Nakoa and Summer Sylva on their appointments to serve at the U.S. Department of the Interior.\n\n\u201cI congratulate Keone Nakoa and Summer Sylva on their historic appointments to the Interior Department,\u201d said Chairman Schatz. \u201cTheir unique perspectives and qualifications will strengthen the Department\u2019s work to honor and advance America\u2019s relationships and trust responsibilities with Native communities in Hawai\u2018i and across the country. I look forward working with them both.\u201d\n\nKeone Nakoa will serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs. Nakoa joins Interior from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs where he worked with Congress and federal agencies as the Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. Keone previously served as speechwriter for the late Senator Daniel Akaka, clerk for the Chief Judge of the Hawai\u2018i Intermediate Court of Appeals and as a lawyer at a private firm in Honolulu. He holds J.D. and MBA degrees from the University of Hawai\u2018i at Manoa and a bachelor\u2019s degree in biological anthropology from Harvard University. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai\u2018i, he is part Native Hawaiian and lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Stephanie.\n\nSummer Sylva will serve as Senior Advisor for Native Hawaiian Affairs. Sylva is a Native Hawaiian attorney from Waimanalo, who most recently served as the executive director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC). Sylva joins Interior with more than a decade of experience litigating before federal and state courts in Hawai\u02bbi, New York, and New Jersey. During her tenure at NHLC, she led litigation efforts on Native Hawaiian rights issues, including water rights, state and federal government entitlement programs, public trust and historic native land claims. Summer holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science from Barnard College-Columbia University and a J.D. from Cornell Law School.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/schatz-congratulates-keone-nakoa-and-summer-sylva-on-appointments-to-interior-department"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.207024022936821, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}