Senate wants more
bills on agenda

Legislature Directory

By Mike Yuen
Star-Bulletin

The Senate has upped the ante, now saying it wants 24 rather than 20 bills considered during a special legislative session tentatively set for the first or second week of next month.

But after a House majority caucus yesterday, Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo) said House Democrats, who control 39 of the chamber's 51 seats, believe that's an unreasonable agenda.

The caucus believes that a five-day special session should be limited to two bills. One would grant a tax break for hotel construction and renovation and the other would pay Washington $2.1 million in state health fund reimbursements, thereby avoiding perhaps as much as $300,000 in interest payments.

Even Gov. Ben Cayetano was puzzled at the Senate's desire for such an ambitious agenda for a short-term special session.

"I think the Senate's list of bills is like having a regular session and is really opening it up to all kinds of things," he said.

While Cayetano doesn't have any problems with having a few more than two bills coming under consideration, having as many as 24 "is really not the purpose of a special session," he said.

"There's so many things (senators) added to the list that it appears that perhaps during the past session their attention was focused on other events that kind of took them away from doing their regular work," Cayetano said. He was referring to the Senate's refusal to have Margery Bronster and Earl Anzai continue as attorney general and budget director, respectively. The confirmation rejections ignited public outrage.

Cayetano joined the House Democrats for their closed-door meeting to explain his rationale for vetoing 45 bills and to highlight some issues, such as civil service reform and improving public education, that he said lawmakers must deal with next year.

Cayetano said he was invited to attend. The Senate's majority Democrats, who met earlier this week, did not issue a similar invitation to Cayetano.

Say said he could not reach Senate President Norman Mizuguchi (D, Aiea) after the House caucus, and will try to meet with him next week to discuss the agenda for a special session.

House Majority Leader Ed Case (D, Manoa) said while individual House members supported taking up some bills that the Senate is pushing, each particular bill fell short of winning majority support for being added to the agenda.

Case said that more than half of the bills that the Senate wants on the table are "direct-spending bills" that would best be considered during next year's regular session with other spending measures so lawmakers can know how "all the pieces fit" in the state financial plan.

Say reiterated that if the Senate insists that all the other bills have to be on the agenda, it likely will kill any chance for a special session.