Diary

Making Law

by M.K. | Jan 25, 2012

“For this session, we must focus our efforts on maintaining economic recovery and promoting immediate job growth,” said Speaker of the House, Rep. Calvin Say in his opening remarks as Hawaii state legislators convened on Jan. 18.

There was no celebratory entertainment or fanfare as in past years; there was no major rallying of the public. No, this opening day was just about legislators getting down to business…or just easing into it (that eight month break did kind of fly by). This may seem like sound policy right out of the gate–skip the show, get right to work–but Hawaii state senators had no choice but to listen as the lone Republican among them, minority leader Sen. Sam Slom made his remarks to those in the Senate chambers…and kind of made a good point.

“We acknowledge the majority’s unilateral decision to once again suspend our tradition of making Hawaii’s legislative opening something special, colorful and unique,” said Slom. “But we respectfully disagree. We believe that the citizens have a direct role in their government and own this Capitol, and we think that this action diminishes their participation. We hope that they’ll have an opportunity–more, during the session–to get directly involved.”

And get involved we should. One way we can do this is to make use of the Public Access Room (PAR) at the State Capitol, room 401. PAR provides the facilities, services and equipment necessary for anyone to participate in the legislative process. Citizens are welcome to make use of the room to research and track pending legislation.

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Assistance is available in person, by phone at 587-0478 or by email to [email: par]

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