Hawaii State Legislature

COVID-19 Newsletter, Vol. 5

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July 2020 Community Report

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COVID-19 Newsletter, Vol. 4

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June 2020 Community Report

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Your Weekly Update from the Capitol - May 16

ALOHA, FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS!

May has brought us more encouraging developments: Our social distancing and quarantine measures, combined with excellent medical care, have been successful in slowing, if not halting, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor and mayors are slowly lifting the closures of public places and more business operations.

The Legislature has also reconvened, following a nearly two-month suspension of the 2020 session. Though the State Capitol will remain closed, legislators began meeting on May 11 for an abbreviated, nine-day emergency session, largely to evaluate and vote on fiscal measures brought forth by our respective money committees.

There are strict public access prohibitions and limitations on in-person participation, but the Legislature has taken steps to ensure that citizens have a voice in the democratic process. All hearings will be carried live on ‘Olelo TV, aired on Neighbor Island public access networks, and streamed live online. Legislators will hold daily news conferences via Zoom, and these will be available to the public live on the Senate’s Facebook page. A full schedule of hearings and meetings, plus instructions on submitting written testimony, are available at capitol.hawaii.gov.

The Senate has been holding hearings on nearly 260 nominations for boards and commissions, in keeping with our advise-and-consent responsibilities. Any appointments would have to be made in time for the nominees to assume their roles effective July 1 or thereabouts.

Below is a recap of what the Legislature took up this week, including the legislative budget and pay raise deferrals; what the COVID-19 committee learned when we met last week; and community and city-related assistance programs, such as free food and Aloha United Way 2-1-1 resources.

Stay safe, connected and prepared.

To read more in my latest Mailchimp update, please click here.

May 2020 Community Report

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Your Weekly COVID-19 Update from the Capitol - May 2

ALOHA, FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS!

This week marked the beginning of the easing of closure restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor is permitting certain business enterprises to resume operations, while parks and beaches were reopened for activity earlier in the week—all provided that social distancing measures are followed. This is a welcome development after weeks of a near-total lockdown and a hopeful sign that our path to recovery is slowly, but surely, on its way.

The Hawaii COVID-19 Public Health Recovery Task Force, a voluntary public-private coalition tasked with developing a plan for reopening our state, shared its ideas with the Senate Special Committee on COVID-19 on April 30. With all the issues and concerns with unemployment insurance claims and travelers disregarding our mandatory 14-day quarantine, I must say it was refreshing to hear such positive ideas on how we can get our state back up and running in a safe and methodical way.

The group is generating a strategic, unified, evidence-based approach to measure and manage a phased recovery to a "new normal." You can view the plan here. The task force plans to coordinate with HIEMA and present the final draft to the governor by the end of next week.



I look forward to the plan's implementation and will keep you abreast of any updates on this front.

Meanwhile, our Special Committee continues to exercise legislative oversight of the state government's response to the pandemic. While our role is advisory, it has not stopped us from representing our constituents in strongly urging the governor and his department heads to be proactive and step up their efforts to respond to the public's needs during this crisis. As examples, we prompted the state to establish the 14-day quarantine for all arriving visitors and returning residents and to develop stricter monitoring. We continue to press Labor Department officials to improve their responses to the huge backlog of unemployment insurance claims. In this regard, Senate employees wrote a training manual for new staffers and volunteers, and the Legislature provided more than 100 employees to assist the Labor Department in processing claims. We urged the governor to seek a cancelation or postponement of the RIMPAC exercises, and I was pleased to learn that the Navy will be moving the event from its usual early summer date to August 17-31. And we have urged the wearing of masks and more testing of the virus.

Below is a recap of what the committee learned and pushed for this past week.

Stay safe, connected and prepared.

To read more in my latest Mailchimp update, please click here.