Disappeared News

There was only testifier in favor of HB2455 this afternoon—Speaker Calvin Say's accountant. All other testimony was against.

But it passed anyway. Amazing, isn't it, that all the testimony in opposition came to nothing.

The committee vice chair, Blake Oshiro, had an amendment ready, so I am wondering if it really mattered if we all testified or didn't.

Only Rep. Cynthia Thielen spoke against the bill and voted No. She spoke well and spoke forcefully, and no doubt that led to many of the "with reservations" votes. But in this case "with reservations" is a crock, because no other committee will hear this bill. It was given only a single referral, a great way to push a bill through the system without much scrutiny.

Rep. Thielen deserves thanks for her stand against this very bad bill. She also spoke in favor of publicly funded elections.

The House Judiciary committee just voted itself into the pockets of large corporations who will no doubt rush to buy their cooperation.

Here is the record of the votes. I have awarded a big "Thank You!" symbol to Rep. Thielen for doing the right thing. To those who voted to take more money from corporations, they get the "Corporate Money Grabber" symbol.

		No		Rep. Cynthia Thielen
		Yes		Rep. Tommy Waters
		Yes		Rep. Blake Oshiro
		Yes		Rep. Josh Green
		Yes		Rep. Ken Ito
		Yes		Rep. Sylvia Luke
		Yes		Rep. Barbara Marumoto
		Yes		Rep. Kymberly Pine
		Yes		Rep. Alex Sonson
		Yes		Rep. Joseph Souki
		Yes		Rep. Clift Tsuji
		Yes		Rep. Ryan Yamane
		Yes		Rep. Kyle Yamashita

SB3141 comes up before the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow (Wednesday) at 09:00 in room 016. If you can come down, please do.