CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM State House lawmakers have been given new notebook computers to help with their duties. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo used her laptop during yesterday's session.

State House lawmakers add laptop computers
to their arsenal of tools to aid legislative duties

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By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com

For the past eight weeks, state House lawmakers have used new state-owned notebook computers to help them in their duties, as well as to stay busy during the chamber's notoriously long floor debates.

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"Well, I think it's a real departure into the electronic age," said state Rep. Barbara Marumoto (R, Waialae Iki), a 24-year legislator who has embraced the technology. "I think it might be handy, and I might be able to find out more uses for it."

It is the first time laptop computers have been allowed on the House floor, where electronic equipment such as cellular phones is banned. The change follows a trend among states where legislatures are giving members laptops, said House Clerk Patricia Mau-Shimizu.

She said House Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo) approved the purchase of 55 Gateway 450X notebooks last summer. Each laptop cost $1,899.93, and the House ordered them through what is known as the Western States Compact, which allows a dozen state governments in the region to utilize their bulk purchasing power to order items at a discount from manufacturers, she said.

Mau-Shimizu said the House was able to afford the $104,496 through personnel savings in its budget over the past seven years.

The silver-cased computers have a Pentium 4 1.6-gigahertz processor, 256 megabytes of memory, a 20-gigabyte hard drive, DVD player, CD burner, floppy-disk drive and wireless Ethernet card. It uses the Windows 2000 operating system and has programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. They have a three-year parts and labor warranty.

The laptops are linked to the Legislature's in-house bill-making system, known as the Eclipse system. And they are all connected to the Internet via a wireless network that covers the House chambers and may be expanded into conference and committee rooms, Mau-Shimizu said.

The wireless network is secure and third-party access is not allowed, she added. Legislators are required to sign out the computers and are responsible for them if they are lost or stolen.

House leadership has stressed they are for legislative work only and not for campaign, private, personal or commercial purposes.

Among the more avid users so far are Reps. K. Mark Takai (D, Newtown-Waimalu) and Sol Kahoohalahala (D, Lanai-Molokai). Takai has configured his laptop to work with his office computer network and is able to access documents as far back as 1995, when he was first elected to office.

During lengthy floor sessions, Takai is able to call up information on bills as they are discussed, he said. Takai added that he does not think the computers distract lawmakers from what is being debated.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Rep. K. Mark Takai

"It's no different than bringing down other material to read or work to do," Takai said. "I don't look at it as a distraction. I think it's more our ability to be even more efficient. It gives us an opportunity to continue to do work while we're on the floor that we would have do it hard-copy anyway."

Kahoohalahala, who envisions a paperless legislative office, agreed that the laptops are not a distraction during floor sessions. For him it is a matter of personal style and comfort with the computers. The laptop is especially handy because he can e-mail his staff to bring things to him without ever leaving his seat in the chamber.

"It's these little opportunities to still be in touch -- two places at once," Kahoohalahala said.

Still, he has noticed limitations with the laptops, such as battery life. He said he believes AC outlets will eventually be needed for each lawmaker to power up for lengthy sessions like last week's 15-hour meeting.

State Senate Clerk Paul Kawaguchi said his office has purchased laptops for each of the 25 senators, but is not yet allowing their use on the floor. Also, he said, senators must pay for their own Internet connections.