FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 23, 2001
Contact: Rep. Cynthia Thielen
Tel.: 586-6480




GOP: OUTRAGE UPON OUTRAGE

Democrats crush open government resolution


The State House Republican Caucus has released the following statement:


State Representative Ed Case (D., Manoa) introduced three resolutions on the floor of the House today--all seconded by Republicans--that would bring some semblance of democracy back into the legislative process. All the resolutions were soundly defeated in a party line vote. Only the Republicans voted with Representative Case and did so unanimously.

The resolutions focused on a recent conference committee rule change signed only by the Speaker of the House, Calvin Say and Senate President Robert Bunda. The change allows a single committee co-chairman to have "the ability to unilaterally veto a Conference result notwithstanding support by the majority of the (bill) managers."


The resolutions had been deferred for voting since last Thursday. The resolutions would have changed the rules back to what they had originally been -- that only a majority of a quorum of House managers and a majority of a quorum of Senate managers were required to vote a proposed amendment out of Conference Committee.


"The veto power wielded by committee chairs amounts to a dictatorship," said Rep. Cynthia Thielen, (R-Kailua). "We live in a democracy, but this rule creates dictators. We believe in democracy, not dictatorships," she added.


"How do we justify the veto power of one person when we live in a democracy that says 'one person, one vote'," said Colleen Meyer (R-Kahaluu, Haula). "How do you explain that one representative's vote counts more than another? This reminds me of Orwell's "Animal Farm" where all the animals are equal except some are more equal than others."

Under the new rules, virtually all representatives except the chair have no say in conference committee decisions, since the new rules say "The Chair rules". Republicans will continue to oppose these un-democratic tactics.



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