Senate ag committee deadlocks, pro-GMO bill does not pass

by Larry Geller

Update: The Star-Advertiser ran a story this morning with the rather biased (IMHO) headline “Split vote kills plan to bolster farm rights.” Note: the reporter usually doesn’t write the headlines for a print newspaper. This bill is clearly not at all about farmer’s rights, except for those huge chemical companies.

Come back in a bit for a video of the session. In it, you can see that only Senator Laura Thielen raised the procedural issue (paraphrase) of whether it is appropriate to make use of a short-form bill in this way, that is, not for an emergency. She was referring to how the language from an already existing bill was stuffed into this one. The other bill is still alive.

Also, and I think it’s important, Senator Nishihara, the Chair of the Ag committee, after realizing that the bill was dead, nevertheless took the opportunity to fully explain himself to the packed room.

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From the status page for SB110, it appears that the “Zombie” bill did not pass! Here’s the report of the votes:

The committee(s) on AGL recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS and be recommitted. The votes in AGL were as follows: 3 Aye(s): Senator(s) Nishihara, Dela Cruz, Slom; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 3 No(es): Senator(s) Kouchi, English, L. Thielen; and 1 Excused: Senator(s) Wakai.

The recommendation was not adopted.

I wasn’t there, and am wondering what happened. If I can learn more, I’ll post it here.

I expected the committee members to go along with the recommendation of the Chair, as usually happens. Perhaps there was more to today’s hearing than can be deduced from the status report alone.