STAND. COM. REP. NO. 360

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1514

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 1514 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE LEGISLATURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish a temporary working group to study the feasibility of transitioning the Legislature's regular session from one that meets for three and a half months, from mid-January to early May, to one that meets on a year-round basis; and

(2) Appropriate funds.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from four individuals.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Your Committee finds that the Legislature currently meets for a sixty-day regular legislative session in each year, generally stretching from the third Wednesday in January until early May, or approximately three and a half months. To ensure that legislation remains on track to pass all required legislative committees and satisfy all constitutional requirements during this short timeframe, the Legislature sets multiple self-imposed deadlines that bills must meet to advance through the legislative process. Unfortunately, this often means that bills must be rushed to meet these deadlines. Your Committee believes that one potential way to alleviate this rushed scenario and allow for a more deliberate and mindful legislative process is by providing more time in the legislative calendar, specifically by thoroughly examining the merits and costs of transitioning the Legislature's regular session from a three-and-a-half-month session to one that meets on a year-round basis. However, your Committee notes that a year‑round legislative session would require additional staffing and resources. These potential costs have not been studied in‑depth, and there is not yet a good understanding of the potential financial burden that a year-round legislature would place on taxpayers. This measure will bring together relevant stakeholders to examine the feasibility of transitioning to a year-round legislature and create a plan to initiate this transition.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the co-chairs may invite to serve on the working group any other persons whom the co-chairs believe have expertise that would be helpful fulfilling the working group's duties;

(2) Inserting language providing that members of the working group shall serve without compensation but shall be reimbursed for expenses, including travel expenses, necessary for the performance of their duties;

(3) Inserting language providing that no member of the working group shall be subject to chapter 84, Hawaii Revised Statutes, solely because of the member's participation in the working group;

(4) Requiring the working group to produce findings regarding the relative advantages and disadvantages of adopting a continuous legislative session;

(5) Requiring the Legislative Reference Bureau to share any drafts or work product pertaining to the study requested by H.C.R. No. 138, S.D. 1 (2024) with the working group;

(6) Dissolving the working group forty days before the commencement of the Regular Session of 2027, instead of on June 30, 2026;

(7) Inserting an effective date of April 23, 2057, to encourage further discussion; and

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

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 S.B. No. 1514, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1514, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair