STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1846

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2021

RE: S.B. No. 404

H.D. 2

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 404, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONEERING COMMUNICATIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to amend the requirements for a statement of information filed by each person who makes an expenditure for electioneering communications by:

(1) Amending the monetary threshold that triggers disclosure of electioneering communications;

(2) Requiring that disclosures of electioneering communications occur on the date the electioneering communications are publicly distributed;

(3) Classifying election advertisements sent by mail at any postal rate as electioneering communications;

(4) Exempting communications that are actual expenditures by an expending organization from being considered electioneering communications; and

(5) Repealing the requirement that a person be treated as having made an expenditure if the person has executed a contract to make the expenditure.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Common Cause Hawaii. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Campaign Spending Commission, League of Women Voters of Hawaii, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that electioneering communications are meant to expose noncandidate influences on elections which have been shown to radically influence the outcomes of elections in the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the monetary threshold that triggers disclosure of electioneering communications from an unspecified amount to $1,000;

(2) Requiring that disclosures of electioneering communications occur only on the first date a person has made the expenditures, instead of on the date the electioneering communications are publicly distributed;

(3) Excluding candidates and candidate committees from electioneering communication disclosure requirements;

(4) Restoring language that required a person to be treated as having made an expenditure if the person has executed a contract to make the expenditure; and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 404, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 404, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

MARK M. NAKASHIMA, Chair