STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3890

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1888

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 1888, H.D. 2, entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Increase the threshold amount that requires disclosure of electioneering communications;

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

(3) Specify the disclosure date for subsequent public distribution of electioneering communications;

(4) Exempt communications in news stories or editorials published by electronic means from being considered electioneering communications;

(5) Repeal the actual expenditures exception from the definition of "electioneering communication"; and

(6) Apply these requirements to all elections beginning with the 2022 primary election.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Campaign Spending Commission and Common Cause Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that Act 3, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2021, received criticism for seeming to limit the expenditure reporting requirement by parties for electioneering communications. Electioneering communications reporting is required for noncandidate committees whose expenditures are not the result of direct contributions to any candidate and represents an unchecked resource that can be used to unduly influence the results of candidate and issue elections. Because of the unchecked and unknown sources of these funds, additional scrutiny for their expenditures is warranted. Amending the disclosure date of electioneering communications to occur on the date the electioneering communications are publicly distributed is timelier and provides more transparency.

Your Committee has amended this measure by clarifying that the disclosure date for mailers is the date the mailers are mailed.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1888, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1888, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair