Lobbying Hawaii
State legislators to support a particular bill or issue can be fun
and educational. It starts the minute winners are declared after each
election. Elections are held every two years.
Any citizen can
lobby for or against an issue. Only professional lobbyists are required
by law to register, declare whom they are lobbying for, what they
will be lobbying for, and how much they are getting paid for their
effort.
Take this as an
example. As a private citizen, I am interested in issues concerning
adult health care, Filipino-American veterans, organ donation, environmental
protection, and human rights. These interests stem basically from
what I do in the community and at work.
I started lobbying
two weeks before the January 15, 2003 opening of the 22nd legislative
session. I sent emails to various representatives to support a proposed
bill sponsored by Rep. Dennis Arakaki. The bill will combine certain
functions by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of
Human Services (DHS) concerning adult health care programs. As adviser
to care home organizations, I am in support of this proposed action.
This restructuring however will result in one of the departments taking
more responsibility. Therefore, I have requested Rep. Arakaki that
another bill be proposed to separate the four environmental protection
branches from the DOH and form a new Department of Environmental Protection.
As environmentalist, this is along the line of what we want and it
will benefit the environmental protection field.
Opening of the
legislative session is fun and entertaining. This event is normally
heavily attended. The short two-hour session is mainly ceremonial,
speeches, music and dance entertainments. The session ends at noon,
thereafter, guests, family members, well wishers, lobbyists, and government
officials make their round from offices to offices to congratulate
the newly installed legislators. Food, lots of food is served in each
room. Can you imagine, there are 51 State representatives and 25 senators,
and each of them serving food in their room?
Lobbyists take
advantage of this event. This is when they can informally meet the
legislators face to face, in many occasions, their first meeting.
I went with twenty
names on my list. Aside from my friends, specifically, I choose whom
among the legislators I wanted to see. I had to research what committees
they are on and pay special attention to the chairperson of what committee.
If you are following me, naturally I had to introduce myself to the
committee chairs of health, military affairs, environment, and government
affairs.
The next phase
is actual presentation of testimony either in writing or in person.
This is when many inexperienced lobbyists are left behind. You have
to be ready to testify with 24 hour notice. If you don't have an insider
at the State Capitol, it can be very hard to track down the progress
of each bill. Since I am just a concerned citizen and lobbying is
sort of community service, I still have to go to work. Someone needs
to feed my family. This can become very complicated for people like
me. I cannot afford to take off the whole day from work just to monitor
the bills I am interested to testify. I therefore developed a network
of people who notifies me two hours before a bill is heard. And I
allow myself 45 minutes to drive to the State Capitol. This way, I
save time.
The next phase
is what is called "cross over". This normally happens about
the mid term of the session. Legislative sessions are only for 60
days. Bills that passed committee hearings in the house of representative
cross over to the senate, and bills that passed committee hearing
in the senate cross over to the house of representative. These bills,
although the numbers have greatly been reduced, will undergo exactly
the same process when it was first introduced. You again have to be
ready to testify.
Then, if your
bills are lucky, it will go to what is called "consultation".
This is when counterpart committees from both sides meet, normally
the last day of the committee hearings. This process is very crucial
to monitor and ends at midnight. Even your bills made both houses;
there is still a danger of being dropped during process. This is when
legislators from both houses make deals, sort of "you pass my
bill and I will pass your bill". This is when last minute compromises
are made. It is a closed door session so lobbyists will not know what
is going on with their bills. This is when you give your full trust
to the legislators who sponsored the bills. If your bill makes this
process, then almost for sure it will make the house floor vote and
the bill will go to the governor for signature to become a law.
Well, we are not
done yet. The governor of course can veto bills. You still have to
be very attentive to how the governor feels about certain bills. Normally
he or she would indicate whether in favor or not. If in favor, then,
you don't have a problem. You just get ready for the signing ceremony.
If the governor is not in favor, depending on how important you think
the bill is, you might want to organize supporters and rally in front
of the State Capitol hoping to force the governor to sign the bill.
In Hawaii, a private
citizen can make a big impact in making a law. This is probably what
is called participatory democracy.
I hope I didn't
bore you. For me, lobbying is fun and educational.
Amoyawon
