STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2443

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2530

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2530 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Prohibit state or county contractor's officers and any officer's immediate family, with contracts of $100,000 or more for goods or services or $250,000 or more for construction, from contributing to candidate or noncandidate committees, candidates, or any person for any political purpose for the duration of the contract;

(2) Prohibit grantees, grantees' officers, and grantees' officer's immediate family, with grants of more than $100,000, from contributing to candidate or noncandidate committees, candidates, or any person for any political purpose for the duration of the grant; and

(3) Require any unlawful contribution to be returned to the contributor or it will escheat to the Hawaii Election Campaign Fund.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Campaign Spending Commission, Indivisible Hawaiʻi, League of Women Voters of Hawaii, Green Party of Hawaiʻi, Imua Alliance, and twenty-five individuals.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the State Procurement Office and Hawaiʻi Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations.

Your Committee finds that existing law prohibits a state or county contractor from making political contributions for the duration of lucrative contracts for goods or services or construction. However, officers and their immediate family members may themselves make political contributions which can create the appearance of undue influence, or, conceivably, be a means for a contractor to make a contribution that it would otherwise be prohibited from making. This measure will increase transparency and improve public confidence in government and the electoral process by expanding the prohibition on political contributions to include officers and immediate family members of state and county contractors for contracts above a certain threshold. This measure will similarly apply to the prohibitions to organizations that receive state or county grants and their officers and immediate family members, for grants above a certain threshold.

Your Committee notes the concern raised by the League of Women Voters of Hawaii and Hawaiʻi Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations that this measure, in its current form, would apply to uncompensated volunteers with no financial stake in government awards. Therefore, amendments to this measure are necessary to address this concern.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the restrictions on contributions from state and county contractors and state and county grantees, including the contractors' and grantees' officers, applies only to their officers who are compensated;

(2) Inserting language requiring a state or county contractor or grantee to disclose to the Campaign Spending Commission a list of the names of any compensated officers and the officer's immediate family;

(3) Inserting language requiring the Campaign Spending Commission to make the information disclosed available to candidate and noncandidate committees in a database that is on a password‑protected section of the Commission's website under certain conditions;

(4) Clarifying that this measure shall only apply to contracts and grants executed on or after its effective date;

(5) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

(6) 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 that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2530, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2530, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair