Even with an Island-born president and three senior members in Congress, Hawai'i may not see much more federal government money flowing its way.

Hawai'i already receives an outsized amount of money from Uncle Sam compared to other states, and it's unlikely additional cash will arrive despite having President-elect Barack Obama in the White House and the state's congressmen in charge of key military subcommittees, said U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i.

"If anything, because we're in the position we're in, we have to reach out more," said Abercrombie, chairman of the House Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. "Of course we're going to pay attention to Hawai'i and the Pacific, but I can assure you it's all in the context of advancing the strategic interests of the country."

Hawai'i gets the sixth-most amount of federal money per person — $10,018 in 2005, according to the Washington-based Northeast-Midwest Institute. Alaska collected the most federal dollars at $13,788 per person.

Much of the Hawai'i spending goes to the military because the U.S. Pacific Command is based here, and that won't change no matter who is in charge in Washington, Abercrombie said.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawai'i, is known for his prowess in securing money and in January he will take over the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, which handles the annual budgets of all federal agencies. The group Taxpayers for Common Sense claims Inouye was the senator with the fourth-largest amount of earmarks — totaling $222 million — in a year-end spending bill for 2009.

Hawai'i's leaders will have to guard against the perception that they're favoring their home states too strongly, said Hawai'i Pacific University political science professor Ralph Burr.

"Our senior senator has already lavished the state with as much as we could expect," Burr said.

The slumping national economy and strains on the national purse strings by the incoming Obama administration will make it difficult for Hawai'i to grab more money, said Republican state Sen. Sam Slom.

"There's not a lot more to get. The money is not there. That's the harsh reality for everybody," said Slom, director of Small Business Hawaii. "We may share the wealth, but more importantly we're probably going to be sharing the deficits."

The federal government spent about $8 billion on Hawaii in 2006, making up nearly one-seventh of the state's gross domestic product, said state economist Pearl Imada Iboshi.

Military demands to maintain Pearl Harbor, Schofield Barracks, Hickam Air Force Base, Marine Corps Base Hawai'i in Kane'ohe Bay and other operations probably will remain the same for the near future, she said.

"At least on the military side, things seem pretty stable," Iboshi said. "We don't have any clue what the federal government will do, but it's not something we have any ability to change."

What may change is the effectiveness of Hawai'i's leaders when they push for policies they support, such as renewable energy research and pending federal legislation that would give Hawaiians autonomy rights similar to those provided American Indians, which Obama supports.

The U.S. Department of Energy is already working with Republican Gov. Linda Lingle's administration on a goal to create 70 percent of Hawai'i's energy use from clean energy sources by 2030.