Update : the 2013 Hawaii State Legislation ( Part 1 )
By Lee Aldridge
Late last year ( 2012 ), Larry Quimby , former Treasurer of TEA Party Maui ( TPM ) and now a resident of Oahu , initiated a program to coordinate the efforts of several TPM volunteers ( myself included ) to track and submit testimony on Hawaii State legislative bills in 2013 . January 16th was the opening day of the Hawaii State Legislative Session for 2013 . Bills are introduced by Senators and House Representatives and placed into the “ hopper ” whereupon they are referred to one or more of the 20 House Committees and 16 Senate Committees where three hearings must be held on a bill before it can be moved through the next stage of the legislative process . Public testimony is permitted at the first two hearings , but not the third hearing as it is reserved for decision making by the legislative committee , however most bills are processed through more than one committee and are thus subjected to three hearings before each committee . January 24th , 2013 : was the internal legislative cutoff date for the introduction of any bill . At the end of the day on January 24th , a total of 2872 bills had been introduced ( 1484 House , 1388 Senate ). Between the opening day and the January 24th cutoff , all of the bills were divvied up by Larry Quimby and randomly assigned to 7 to 8 volunteers ( 2 or 3 of the initial 10 volunteers essentially dropped out early on ). Assigned around 400 bills apiece , the volunteers utilized the Hawaii State Legislature website referred to as PAR ( Public Access Room ) to assist them with their task of reading and determining which bill to follow and provide testimony . PAR provides a wealth of information including the full text of every bill and amendments , the bill ’ s authors , status , schedule of hearings , copies of all submitted testimony , and much more including the ability to easily submit testimony online . The plan was to have each volunteer read each bill they were assigned leaving it mostly to their individual discretion as to whether a particular bill warranted the effort to pursue for testimony . The criteria for selection were non-specific , but generally based upon the concept of maintaining limited government . That is to say , any bill that appeared to foster bigger and more powerful government ( and higher taxes ) were to be opposed while those bills that appeared to reduce the impact of government would be supported . Naturally , volunteers selected a greater or lesser number of bills depending upon their own sensibility with regard to the selection criteria . Overall , roughly 200 bills were specifically identified for tracking and testimony . It was the responsibility of each volunteer to keep track of the hearing schedules for their selected bills and to alert the rest of the group to the hearing dates . This was only partially successful as some volunteers could not keep up completely with their assignments and some seemed to have dropped out completely after an initial effort . Thankfully , every year , there is great deal of attrition in the number of bills as they proceed through the legislative process . This is due not only to public testimony in opposition , but also to the State Agencies ’ and legislator ’ s support or opposition to a particular bill . It is primarily at this first stage that bills “ die ” in committee due to the breadth and strength of opposition and / or lack of sufficient internal ( executive and legislative ) support . Some significant milestones in the legislative process and the fate of the 2872 bills initially introduced are summarized below : � March 7th , 2013 when the first cutoff was reached for bills to crossover from their originating chamber to the other chamber
( i . e . House to Senate , Senate to House ) only 753 bills ( 363 House , 390 Senate ) made it through this first deadline .
� April 11th , 2013 , an important second cutoff was reached for bills to be passed back to their originating chamber ( 2nd crossover ). By his time , only 414 bills ( 180 House , 234 Senate ) survived .
� May 2nd , 2013 ; Legislature is adjourned ( sine die ) without setting a date for reconvening . As of June 2 , 2013 , the date I wrote this article , the legislature had passed 294 bills on to the Governor to sign into law ( as an Act ) and their status stands as follows : � Bills passed by the Legislature and pending the Governor ’ s signature : 208 ( 93 House , 115 Senate bills )
� Bills already signed by the Governor : 86 ( 30 House , 56 Senate bills )
� Bills identified by the Governor ’ s
Office to be vetoed : 0 What happens next ? The Governor may sign , veto , or not act on a bill in which case it automatically becomes law . He must act within 10 days for bills presented to him earlier than 10 days before legislative adjournment . For bills presented within the 10 days before adjournment or after adjournment , he has 45 days to act . Any bill vetoed by the Governor may be reconsidered by the legislature up to noon on the 45th day after adjournment . A veto may be overridden by a 2 / 3 vote of both House and Senate or a simple majority may amend and return the vetoed bill to the Governor for reconsideration . Chances are high that all the bills pending the Governor ’ s signature will either be signed into law or will pass into law automatically due to inaction on his part . As for the efforts of TPM volunteers , it is unfortunately difficult to judge what
( Continued on page 7 )
Pono Press , June 2013 , Page 6