Thursday, April 25, 2013
Alert: Frankenbill HB252 lives on, becomes even more undemocratic
by Larry Geller
Whatever democracy is left in Hawaii’s state legislative process ends at the conference room door. Anything can (and does happen).
Activists are raising an 11th hour alarm about Conference Draft #1 of HB252 one of this session’s “Frankenbills.” Check it out at the link—geothermal has been mixed in with a Native Hawaiian roll call.
But the legislature hasn’t rested after creating this monster. An amendment that was taken out of the bill on the floor has been stuck back in by the conference committee, according to a report posted on punapono.com.
We just got hold of Conference Draft #1 of HB252 and the Chair of the conference committee has agreed to reinsert the language about mediation. Senator Ruderman’s amendment to remove all language pertaining to mediation was approved two weeks ago on the Senate floor, yet this conference draft completely ignores that action. Meantime, Senator Solomon is pressing the conference committee to pass this version of HB252 which she claims is “urgently needed”.
HB252 is a bad bill any way you slice it. This legislation isn’t needed now and the situation isn’t urgent. Please email or call the members of the conference committee listed below and let them know that this bill needs to be voted down because:
It completely ignores the will of the Senate by reinserting mediation requirements which the community already has tried with unsuccessful results,
The Senate never voted on this version of the measure! The public was never given the opportunity to weigh in on this measure.
There are no negative consequences to killing HB252 yet if this bill passes it could potentially have significant negative outcomes.
So this bill has become kind of a “GMO” bill with unnatural bits stuck into it.
Unless the public objects loudly, so that the din can be heard behind the closed doors of the conference committee, this Frankenbill could pass.
Check out the web page for more. It contains the list of conference committee members that you can call or email.
Call now—the conference committee is scheduled to meet publicly today, Thursday, April 25th at 2:00 p.m. in conference room 312.
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