With military land leases expiring, Hawaii moves into unique negotiating position

HONOLULU (CN) — While other blue state governors make headlines battling the Trump administration publicly, Hawaii Governor Josh Green keeps his disagreements behind closed doors.

"Today alone, I spent time talking to the Secretary of Education, the Assistant Secretary of the Army," Green told Courthouse News. "So my days tend to be more built around navigating a détente with the federal government so that we can do our part and be treated respectfully."

It's not just temperament. It's survival. Green is trying to secure $10 billion in federal funds, and the clock is ticking.

On Aug. 16, 2029, U.S. Army leases on 29,293 acres of Hawaii land will expire. Secured for one dollar in 1964, the parcels include the most critical military training grounds in the Pacific.

Both sides know the deal must be completed before the leases expire, though the timeline for negotiations has shifted, as any agreement would need congressional approval through the most recent National Defense Authorization Act.

That gives Green limited time to negotiate a deal, assuming he wins re-election this November.

"I don't have the luxury of being in conflict with the federal government," Green said. "No matter who is in charge, a Democrat or a Republican, it's my responsibility to work in a mature way to make sure Hawaii's needs are met and the nation's needs are met."

Hawaii’s key strategic position

The 29,293 acres are primarily training grounds — open ranges where soldiers fire live artillery, practice helicopter assaults and conduct large-scale maneuvers with real bullets and real bombs.

Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, the largest at 23,000 state-leased acres, is the only facility in the Pacific where the Army can conduct battalion-level live-fire artillery exercises. The 25th Infantry Division, based at Oahu’s Schofield Barracks, trains there with howitzers and mortars. Marines certify combat units before deployment there. Allied forces from Japan, Australia and South Korea come to train there.

The other state-leased parcels serve specific functions: 1,150 acres at Kahuku Training Area on Oahu's North Shore handles jungle and helicopter training; Makua Valley’s 782 acres continue helicopter operations, though live-fire training ended in 2004; and Kawailoa-Poamoho’s 4,390 acres are used for aviation training.

"In the Pacific, strategy runs on a simple constraint, and that constraint is distance, time and space," Lt. Gen. James Glynn, commander of Marine Forces Pacific told Courthouse News. "You can have the best ships, the best aircraft, the best troops, but if you can't get combat power ashore, you don't turn the map."

The Marine Corps now certifies entire regiments in Hawaii — confirming they meet deployment readiness standards — units that used to fly back to California for the process.

"We don't get a warm-up lap," Glynn said. "We either integrate information into the plan or we let the environment dictate it."

Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, has called Hawaii "the gateway to the Pacific" and emphasized the need for "magazine depth" — stockpiling munitions forward, close to potential conflict zones.

All of this strengthens Green's negotiating position.

What both sides want

Green laid out his opening proposal — $10 billion in federal investment in infrastructure Hawaii needs to support the military presence — in an October 29 letter to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. It includes 6,500 new housing units, energy projects, conversion of 88,000 cesspools that leach toxins into groundwater, extension of Honolulu's Skyline rail system, increased Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and the return of Makua Valley with a $500 million endowment to remove unexploded ordnance.

"Hawaii's people have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Nation's armed forces for generations," Green wrote in the letter. "Our shared duty now is to ensure that this partnership evolves with integrity, balancing readiness with respect for our land, our culture, and our future."

Daniel Driscoll, President Donald Trump's nominee to be the Department of Defense's secretary of the Army, testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

According to a January 2025 Pentagon report requested by U.S. Representative Jill Tokuda, 48,500 active-duty service members and their families occupy 14,700 of Oahu's 105,868 occupied rental units — nearly 14% of the market — in a state already facing one of America's worst housing crises.

"Our primary focus in Hawaii as governor is housing and affordability," Green told Courthouse News. "A lot of the actions I take are to enhance our housing inventory, and part of my negotiation with the military over the leases is to support our housing infrastructure and our housing inventory, but also our energy system."

The military is Hawaii's largest single energy consumer. When the state had to pivot from Russian oil after the Ukraine war began, it needed the military's cooperation. Green's been meeting with Energy Secretary Chris Wright to discuss liquified natural gas infrastructure investment as part of the land deal.

"If we don't have adequate firm power, things could go south really quickly," Green said. "If we do the land deals and support the military, but don't have the adequate energy infrastructure, it won't work. Same thing can be said of housing. Same thing can be said of our natural resources."

The military's priorities are different but not incompatible. The Army has signaled it's willing to return portions of Makua Valley and most of Kahuku Training Area, along with giving up all of Kawailoa-Poamoho.

What the military won't budge on is Pohakuloa.

Without Pohakuloa, according to military leaders, there's no replacement in the Pacific theater. The Army wants long-term certainty — ideally leases extending 25 to 65 years, according to state officials — and to avoid a protracted legal battle over condemnation that would be politically toxic and operationally disruptive.

The condemnation threat

In late 2025, the Army pushed for an immediate resolution, threatening what they called a "friendly condemnation" to take control of the training lands. Green's office also learned the Army secretary's office and Department of Justice had been discussing whether the military has the legal authority to seize land in Hawaii for training purposes.

Green pushed back, insisting on time to work out an agreement with stakeholder input. He formed an advisory council made up mostly of Native Hawaiian leaders to ensure balanced discussion throughout the negotiation process.

Congress also responded swiftly. The most recent National Defense Authorization Act specifies the Army currently lacks the power to take control of the land and says any attempt to do so through condemnation would go against what lawmakers intended. The legislation also presses the Army to clearly outline and share its plans before asking Congress for any additional authority.

That congressional intervention may prove crucial given the president's history of pushing legal boundaries.

"I think by necessity, any governor of Hawaii has to be very mindful of his or her relationship with the military," Green said. "Military presence is not going away from Hawaii, and we do have a responsibility to the whole country to do our part."

A final push

Driscoll and Green signed a nonbinding statement of principles in September, but the substantive negotiations continue behind closed doors. Green proposed pushing back the negotiating deadline by a year to allow time for environmental reviews, which the state estimates won't be complete until 2028.

If no deal is reached by August 2029, the leases simply expire. The Army would lose access to nearly 30,000 acres of active training grounds with no comparable replacement in the Pacific.

Congress could grant condemnation against National Defense Authorization Act authorization. Or the military could enter a legal fight that could take years and cost more than Green's proposal, if it attempts executive workarounds or simply refuses to leave.

The military could even genuinely relocate operations, though Pentagon officials say building equivalent capacity elsewhere would take years and billions of dollars.

Washington retains leverage. The federal government provides several billion dollars annually to Hawaii beyond direct military defense spending — Hawaii received about $5.6 billion in federal transfers to state and local governments in fiscal year 2022 for things like health care, education, infrastructure and social services.

The U.S. military’s presence also has a large economic footprint: defense activity brought over $10 billion into Hawaii in 2023, and the military supports 73,072 military and civilian personnel statewide, with an estimated 17 % of all jobs tied directly or indirectly to defense spending.

"Hawaii is going to be here a lot longer than President Trump or me or Admiral Paparo or any of the leaders today," Green said. "So I think we have to be good caretakers of this relationship."

Governor Josh Green and First Lady Jaime Kanani Green announce Hawaii will hosts the 13th annual Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture. (Keya Rivera/Courthouse News)

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Categories / Defense/War, Environment, Features, Government, Politics

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