HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

17

TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 


HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the Amending of the House rules to provide for the extension of the advance notice for a public hearing from forty-eight to seventy-two hours, excluding the hours on weekends and requiring a vote by the full house of representatives for there to be waiver in the hearing notice requirement.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, transparency is government's obligation to share information with citizens, and it is as the heart of how citizens holds their public officials accountable; and

 

     WHEREAS, a more transparent government begins with providing the people the opportunity to tell their elected officials what they think of a piece of legislation, before it comes up for a vote; and

 

     WHEREAS, through giving the people adequate time to review and comment on proposed bills and legislation will improve the quality of legislation and enhance trust in government; and

 

     WHEREAS, to ensure public participation in committee hearings, House Rule 11.5, subsection 1, provides that notice of committee meetings or decision making must be publicly posted at forty-eight hours prior to the meeting; and

 

     WHEREAS, this forty-eight hour rule includes weekends and holidays, and also includes a provision allowing it to be shortened "at the discretion of the Speaker upon request on the House floor by a chair or vice-chair and upon good cause shown"; and

 

     WHEREAS, the existing short notice makes it difficult for ordinary citizens to write testimony and almost impossible for them to rearrange their work or personal schedules to attend a hearing; and

 

     WHEREAS, more notice of a committee hearing will allow for more citizens and organizations to submit more meaningful testimony and can make a big difference in getting more people to participate in the democratic process; and

 

WHEREAS, to ensure citizens are getting adequate advance notice of a hearing, the forty-eight hour rule should be extended to seventy-two hours and those hours must not include weekends or holidays; and

 

     WHEREAS, in order to increase transparency, whenever an exception to the hearing notice rule is necessary, the members of the House should vote on granting the exception to ensure accountability for implementing the exception; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2011, that the House of Representatives is urged to amend the rules of the House of Representatives to be amended to extend the time for public notice of a committee hearing from forty-eight to seventy-two hours; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the rules of the House of Representatives be amended to include a provision stipulating that the new seventy-two hours notice of a hearing does not include weekends or holidays; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the rules of the House of Representatives be amended to require that a waiver of the new seventy-two hour hearing notice requirement can only be granted upon approval of a vote by the full House of Representatives; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the House Majority Leader, the House Majority Floor Leader, the House Minority Leader, and the House Minority Floor Leader.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

House Rules; urging amendment; public notice