STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2596

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2634

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2634 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LOBBYISTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide greater transparency by requiring individuals who spend more than $750 on lobbying during an expenditure statement period to categorize each expenditure by dollar amount and describe the nature and purpose of each expenditure, as determined by the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, League of Women Voters of Hawaii, Common Cause Hawaii, and nine individuals.

     Your Committee finds that existing law requires the reporting of total lobbying expenditures but does not require that these expenditures be categorized according to their nature and purpose.  This measure provides greater transparency regarding the expenditures that are made by lobbyists and lobbying organizations seeking to influence legislative action by requiring the categorization of lobbying expenditures.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Adopting the language suggested by the Hawaii State Ethics Commission to clarify that each expenditure of a lobbyist or lobbying organization filing an expenditure statement be itemized in specified categories; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2634, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2634, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair