By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
House Democrats yesterday thwarted Republicans’ first attempt to pull legislation out of committee for a floor vote.
The House Republicans used their 19 votes to successfully recall from the Judiciary Committee a bill that would prohibit sex between a minor and an adult at least five years older, but they were promptly outmaneuvered by the Democrats.
House Majority Leader Marcus Oshiro moved to recommit the bill to the Judiciary Committee and the majority Democrats approved his motion, so the bill was removed from the floor without discussion on the age of consent issue.
It appears House Democrats will use that strategy whenever the House Republicans attempt to bring a bill to the floor. The state Constitution allows one-third of the House to pull legislation from a committee for a floor vote. With their increased numbers in the House, Republicans were counting on using that constitutional provision to affect policy at the Legislature.
The House Republicans said they pulled the bill onto the floor because Judiciary Committee Chairman Eric Hamakawa, D-3rd (South Hilo, Puna), did not indicate he would hear the legislation. Hamakawa called the Republicans’ move premature and said his committee still had more than two weeks to consider the bill. He also said he hasn’t decided whether to hear the measure, but he is one of three representatives who told The Advertiser in a December survey that he opposes raising the age of consent.
House Minority Leader Galen Fox, R-21st (Waikiki, Ala Wai), said the Democrats’ action "flies in the face of common sense understanding about that part of the Constitution" and that Republicans are looking into the possibility of taking the dispute to court.
Oshiro, D-40th (Wahiawa, Whitmore), said the Republicans were grandstanding and that voting on the bill without a public hearing would have circumvented the legislative process.
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