THE SENATE

S.R. NO.

4

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


SENATE RESOLUTION

 

AMENDING THE RULES OF THE SENATE TO AUTHORIZE THE PRESIDENT TO ADOPT CONFERENCE COMMITTEE PROCEDURES.

 

WHEREAS, a long-standing practice of the Senate and House, at least prior to the 2001 Legislative Session, was to have their presiding officers or majority leaders adopt joint House-Senate conference committee procedures to facilitate the efficient administrative and logistical operations of these committees; and

WHEREAS, in 2001 the House agreed to a Senate proposal to amend the joint conference procedures that altered, for the first time, the equal voting power of conference committee members by requiring a majority of the chairs to approve a conference draft; and

WHEREAS, while citizen groups refer to this procedure as the "conference chair veto rule", it was amended in 2002 to allow a majority of chairs to override a single chair veto, although most conference committees have one or two chairs, and the override provision was maintained in the 2003 conference procedures; and

WHEREAS, Special Committee Report No. 1, submitted pursuant to S.R. 147 on December 22, 2003, acknowledged the need to authorize the Senate President to adopt conference committee procedures based, however, on a rationale to allow conference procedures not restricted by consistency with Senate Rules; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of this resolution is to amend the Senate Rules to authorize the President to adopt conference committee procedures to facilitate the efficient administration of the committees, and to prohibit any procedure that may alter the voting power of committee members; and

WHEREAS, the rules of the Senate may be amended pursuant to Senate Rule 86, with one day's notice of the change, by a majority vote of the members of the Senate; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, that Senate Rule 3 on the duties of the Senate President shall be amended by adding a new paragraph to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

To adopt conference committee procedures in coordination with the Speaker of the House to facilitate the efficient administration of the committees, provided that no procedure shall alter the voting power of committee members.;

and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the Senate shall distribute Senate Rule 3, as amended by this resolution, to all Senators and the Speaker of the House, and revise the Senate Rules on the Senate's website to reflect this amendment.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Senate Rule Amendments