Democrats say a lot got done in session

What do you think of the Legislature special emergency session? Did lawmakers get the job done?

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i Democrats, defending the work of the recently concluded special session of the Legislature, said yesterday that lawmakers did a lot to help state residents affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

At a press conference yesterday, high-ranking Democrats said they provided immediate relief in the Legislature's two-week emergency session by helping pass 15 bills addressing security, unemployment, health benefits and the economy.

"We feel what we did in the last special session was really extraordinary," said House Majority Whip Brian Schatz, D-24th (Makiki, Tantalus). "To pass 15 really significant bills to provide immediate relief in the short term in two weeks is something that I don't believe this Legislature has ever been able to accomplish."

Micah Kane, executive director for the Hawai'i Republican Party, said yesterday that the GOP was "generally supportive" of the measures adopted during the special session, particularly the extension of unemployment benefits, but he said more needed to be done to assist the struggling visitor's industry.

Gov. Ben Cayetano had convened the emergency session to deal with the economic downturn that followed the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Lorraine Akiba, chairwoman of the Hawai'i Democratic Party, said the Legislature committed more than $36 million for added security at harbors, highways and airports. The money is coming from established sources at no cost to Hawai'i taxpayers, she said.

The measures that the Democrats cited included the extension of up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment insurance compensation, an extension of temporary health insurance benefits, state subsidies for health insurance for laid-off workers, $1 million each for emergency housing and food needs, and the establishment of an Emergency Environmental Workforce for short-term employment for workers who lost their job as a result of the economic downturn.

Kane, however, said the session didn't provide "immediate relief" to the tourist industry, which was hurt the most. "It did nothing to put people back on the airplanes," he said.

Kane said the Legislature could have developed measures to assist airlines and allow visitors to fly here free if they promised to stay for at least a week.

"We felt that that would have been a worthwhile investment to get our industry through these tough times, and it also would have been a pretty novel idea that would have had some legs," he said.

Advertiser staff writer Curtis Lum contributed to this report.