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Today, Common Cause Hawaii announced the passage of three bills they advocated for during this legislative session to strengthen and protect democracy.

Award given to state legislature's most dishonest "gut and replace" legislation. Honolulu, HI — Today, Common Cause Hawaii and The League of Women Voters of Hawaii announced that this year’s Rusty Scalpel Award for most unconstitutional state legislation was given to HB 862 “Relating to State Government,” for its overly-broad scope, ever-changing intent, and lack of transparency throughout the bill-to-law process. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser urged Governor Ige to veto the legislation, which he included on his intent-to-veto list because the bill ignores constituents’ demands. “‘Gut and replace’ legislation violates the Hawaii State Constitution, reduces transparency, undermines accountability, and eliminates valuable public input throughout the legislative process.” said Donna Oba, President of the League of Women Voters of Hawaii. The bill, originally intended to abolish the office of aerospace development, was gutted and amended to deal with the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems and received three readings on separate days. In the Senate, provisions dealing with the Hawaii Tourism Authority, Hawaii Workforce Development Council, Public Utilities Commission, Transient Accommodations Tax, and more were added, which were all unrelated to the original bill topic, the office of aerospace development. Further, the Senate hodgepodge version of HB862 did not receive three readings in either chamber. The League of Women Voters of Hawaii and Common Cause Hawaii believe that HB862 should be vetoed because of its constitutional defects.

(Honolulu) – During a 2021 Hawaii State legislative session that started amid a surging global pandemic with the Capitol closed to the public and legislators focused on a dire local economic outlook, Common Cause Hawaii understood that democracy was still our mission. We continued to remind our elected officials that we need to ease access to voter registration for our citizens, we must restore confidence in our government through ethics reform, and we need more transparency and accountability in our government. Common Cause Hawaii remained undaunted in holding power accountable. Several of our priority bills passed in 2021 and will become law.

Hawaii Proud Boy Founder Nicholas Ochs and all those who participated, encouraged, and incited the violent insurrection must be fully held accountable under the law.