Report offers 'alternatives' to Senate's veto rule

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

A Senate panel yesterday approved a report analyzing its rules on decision-making, a move that at least some government watchdog advocates applauded as helping to open the legislative process.

The report, however, fell short of recommending that the Senate repeal a rule that gives conference chairmen "veto-power" over bills, a controversial practice that some have called undemocratic.

Under present rules, a measure cannot be passed out of a House-Senate conference committee without the approval of a majority of the committee chairmen for each chamber.

That means in many conference committees, which meet in the final days of the session to work out differences between House and Senate versions of bills, one chairman can keep a bill from advancing even if the rest of the committee members want to pass it.

The 19-page report includes three "alternatives," one of which is to delete the differentiation between chairmen and other members for voting purposes.

Sen. Les Ihara said the report, approved by the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs and two members of the Senate leadership, should recommend repealing the rule, saying that otherwise, the veto power will likely remain.

Ihara, D-9th (Kapahulu, Kaimuki, Palolo), said he will introduce a resolution, for the fourth year, to change the rule.

But Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), said just repealing the rule will not resolve the problem because chairmen can also stall bills by not showing up to a meeting or not signing a meeting notice.

"I think it's better for people to vote no and you know where they stand than to have people just not show up or not sign a notice," she said.

Laure Dillon, executive director of the Hawai'i Clean Elections Coalition, said she would have preferred that the panel recommend repealing the rule, but that "in lieu of no action, this is a good middle ground."

She said she was pleased with the overall report, which included a proposed rule change aimed at ensuring that bills are referred to committees with jurisdiction over the subject of the bill.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.