By Keli’i Akina
Halloween is over, but there is still a monster that threatens us.
In years past, I have talked about the dangers of zombie and Frankenstein bills at the state Capitol. But there is another monster lurking there, quietly devouring the time and attention of all it touches. It is that large, shapeless mass of new legislation introduced every year that I shall call the Blob.
Richard Wiens, an editor at Honolulu Civil Beat, explained in a recent commentary that Hawaii has no meaningful limit on the number of bills legislators are allowed to introduce each session. As a result, a staggering 5,810 bills were introduced during the 2023-2024 biennium, with only 536 passing both houses and an even fewer 516 being signed into law — less than 10% of the original total.
The onslaught of new legislation introduced every year embodies a real drain on public time and money. A majority of these bills never even get a hearing, yet legislative staffers must research and write them, process them and refer them to committees.
One of the worst effects of the Blob comes at the end of each session, when legislators run out of time and hurry to pass important bills before adjournment.
So how do we fight the Blob? Thankfully, all we need is a little bit of discipline.
Specifically, our representatives and senators could use the power they have to set internal rules that would limit the number of bills each member is allowed to introduce per session. At least 24 other state legislatures do this, with some limiting the number to a mere five or six bills per year.
According to Wiens, former House Speaker Scott Saiki made an attempt at the beginning of the 2023-2024 biennium to contain the Blob by introducing an internal limit of 20 bills per session for House members, with a higher limit for committee chairs. But that restriction also allowed waivers, and in 2023, 36 of the 51 representatives exceeded the cap.
Hawaii’s senators, meanwhile, introduced even more bills than our representatives, despite their chamber comprising half as many members.
New House member Kim Coco Iwamoto has suggested a limit of seven bills per representative per session. I endorse that idea, and I hope our state senators will find a way to limit themselves as well.
Perhaps such a limit could even discourage the use of procedural shenanigans such as “blankety-blank” bills, in which proposed spending or tax amounts are undisclosed until the end of the session — and which in the spirit of Halloween I will call “bills without a brain.”
In any case, in the spirit of bolstering transparency and making the legislative process more productive and efficient, it’s time that we finally vanquish the Blob.
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Keli‘i Akina is president and CEO of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.