Hawaii legislators face deadline to avoid repeat of 'chaos'

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House and Senate legislators negotiating changes are under pressure to approve final bills by 6 p.m. tonight to avoid what Senate President Ron Kouchi called "the chaos" that surrounded the end of 2023's session.

The 2024 Legislature adjourns in a week, on May 3.

As the 2023 session concluded, several bills abruptly died without explanation, and legislators openly complained that they were being asked to vote on measures they did not fully understand.

At Wednesday's gathering of the Vegas Chamber Hawaii Business Exchange Summit at the Sheraton Waikiki, Ko­uchi said, "Last year there was so much chaos."

"We had a brand-new

finance chair in the House, and our Ways and Means chair and the previous Finance chair, who became the lieutenant governor

(Sylvia Luke), had worked together like six or seven years, so they had established a rhythm, a trust," Kouchi said. "The budget process went very smoothly, and at the end we had chaos and we had bills dying and members confused. The grade was a very poor grade for the Legislature by the public and by the press for the way it concluded, which made us do some changes."

Kouchi and House Speaker Scott Saiki adjusted this week's schedule to give the Senate Ways and Means Committee and House Finance Committee until Monday to approve the state budget and allow House and Senate conference committee members budget information they need to settle differences in House and Senate versions of bills.

But not everything went as planned.

"We couldn't meet that (Monday) deadline, but we got it done by Tuesday," Kouchi told the summit gathering.

Thursday night was the deadline to approve nonfinance bills, and tonight conference committee members have to approve budget-­related bills.

Technically, Kouchi and Saiki have the power to extend the deadlines into the final week of the session.

But Saiki told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that conference committee members are under pressure to wrap up their business tonight before the full House and Senate take final votes scheduled for Wednesday.

"We have invoked that

exception in the past for

extraordinary reasons," Saiki said. "So it's always a possibility. But if we do that it would be for a very specific purpose or very specific bill. It would not be an across-the-board waiver."

House Finance Chair Kyle Yamashita (D, Pukalani-­Makawao-Ulupalakua) for weeks has not responded to requests for comment from the Star-Advertiser about how he intends to avoid a repeat of 2023's end of the session and did not immediately respond to another

request Thursday.

But state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-­Wahiawa-Whitmore Village) — chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee — told the Star-Advertiser that changes in this week's schedule have been positive.

"I think it's going good," he said. "It gives members

a lot more time to review documents."

But they still remain under pressure to resolve bills.

For Thursday night and tonight, Dela Cruz said that "it's make it or break it at this point. If the committees cannot come to agreement by Friday, then they're going to have to come back next year."

Next week, legislators are scheduled to have a full day off to review bills ahead of final votes Wednesday on the floors of the House and Senate, Dela Cruz said.

"Newer House members last year said they didn't have time," he said. "This year they have ample time."

Colin Moore, who teaches public policy at the University of Hawaii and serves as associate professor at the University of Hawaii Economic Resource, said Ko­uchi and Saiki understood that changes needed to be made to end this year's session, especially in an election year.

"Both the speaker and Senate president were embarrassed how things ended last session," Moore said. "Everyone thought that was a real bad look for the Legislature with a cattle call of legislators who didn't have time to read through bills they were voting on. Having a repeat of last year was the last thing they wanted to end the session. ... It is an election year, as well, so I'm sure that had something to do with it. The last image they want

is people in a chaotic, crowded room speed-

reading through bills."

Saiki said this week's change in schedule already has resulted in the House approving 50 bills in just the past two weeks.

But veteran House Republican Gene Ward (Hawaii Kai-Kalama) remains unconvinced that what happened at the end of 2023 was an accident.

"Any confusion and chaos, planned or otherwise, is premeditated and

to keep the public misinformed," Ward said.

Throughout this session Ward has often spoken about the need to help Maui following the Aug. 8 wildfires but told the Star-

Advertiser on Thursday, "I still can't tell how much money is going to Maui."

So today and tonight will be critical "to see if there's going to be any chaos," Ward said. "This is par for the course."