By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
The power struggle between state House Republicans and Democrats has prompted the speaker of the House and Senate president to waive a legislative deadline to keep more than 200 measures from dying in the House.
House Speaker Calvin Say and Senate President Robert Bunda have agreed to waive the Friday cutoff date by which bills are to be sent to the next committee for consideration.
The move comes after a week of gridlock in the House, where last week Democrats used floor maneuvers to block debate on a Republican measure that would raise the age of sexual consent. In response to Democrats’ sending that bill back to committee and tabling others, Republicans used their own floor maneuvers to stall action on bills in a marathon session that began Thursday.
The 19 House Republicans are the most ever to sit in that body since before statehood. They pledged as the session began to use their votes to force measures to the House floor. The constitution allows a third of the 51 House members to pull bills from committee.
"The Democratic majority is trying to do its work, and we were stalled by the Republican minority," Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee Chairman Eric Hamakawa said yesterday.
But Hawai‘i Republican party chairwoman Linda Lingle said: "Things have been held up because of the Democrats’ refusal to follow the law."
The Democratic leadership is expected today to ask Republicans which bills they want recalled. Democrats will propose that if those bills are not heard by a committee they will be scheduled for discussion on March 6.
[back to top] |
