Life of the Land asserts that several reforms could be made to make the state legislature operate in a more democratic way.

Committees

The Legislature exempted itself from the sunshine law. We have witnessed the hearing notice being posted after the hearing is over. Some have suggested that this could be fixed by lengthening the session. A simpler solution is a shortened sunshine law for the legislature. All hearing notices must be posted on the web 48 hours before the hearing.

Some committee chairs announce that the bill before the committee will be replaced as part of the hearing notice. Most do not. If a committee chair proposes making substantial changes to a bill, the proposed change should be posted with the hearing notice.

Legislative bills without fiscal impact should not be sent to the money committees, i.e., the House Finance Committee and the Senate Ways and Mean Committee.

Conference Committee

Conference Committees often open their initial meeting, then leave to have discissions, and then come back to vote. Discussions must be public rather than part of backroom deals.

There is an increasing effort by committees to get bills into conference committee where most decisions occur outside of the public eye and where extensive lobbying occurs. All testimony submitted during the conference committee phase of the legislative session should be posted in real-time.

Years ago, Life of the Land proposed that microphones be used during conference committee discussions. Microphones were brought to the table, but many were not used. Microphone use should be required.

Voting

Voting with reservations, especially on the final vote, should be eliminated.

House and Senate Chambers

The sound system in the gallery makes it often difficult and sometimes impossible to understand what is being said by legislators on the floor of the chamber. The technological fix must be made immediately.

Legislative caucuses often involve food provided by a lobbying group. Who is paying for the food each day should be identified.

Staff

Legislative staff play a key and often unappreciated role. At the end of each session, a limited number of pamphlets are sent to each legislative office, with pictures of the staff in each office. The publication should be posted online at the beginning of the session.

In the recent passed, most committee chairs had staff members paid by the organizations that had legislation pending in their committees. This practice has been greatly reduced over the past decade. A few staff members may still be paid by lobbying organizations. Third party finances staff members should be identified on the legislative website.

Lobbyists

Some entities are clearly lobbying organizations but escape reporting requirements because they contain a mix of agency, legislative, business, and community people. There should be a legislative webpage where major lobbying organizations that avoid filing as lobbyists can be identified.

Testimony

Some committees post testimony before the hearing. Most don’t. Many people, including agency representatives attend the hearing and stand on their testimony without stating what their position is. Only a few committee chairs require the testifier to summarize their position. One solution would be to post all testimony 24 hours before the hearing.

Agendas can be long. A committee can schedule 16 bills to be heard in a three-hour period. Some committee chairs assert that there is a three, or two, or one minute allowed for each testifier. And yet, some testifiers are allowed to speak for 30 minutes or more. This inequality is based on connections, physical appearance, and/or shortening the amount of time to hear testimony for bills at the end of the agenda. There should be uniformity in allowed time to speak.

Increasingly, committees are live broadcasted and allow for virtual testimony. This helps Neighbor Island testifiers. Not all committees are broadcast as that option is up to the committee chair. This practice must be uniform and must allow for remote testimony.