Commentary from Senator Sakamoto

April 26, 2007

Making Sausages and Making Laws

Richard Borreca, Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter, in an April 15 article, wrote that "there are times when we want to see both sausages and laws being made."  He pointed to three resolutions1 to which radical changes were made by the Education committee for no apparent reason or good policy reason as examples of the unpleasant messiness that is part of law making and sausage making.  Flexibility in lawmaking – like the changes made to the resolutions cited – is often necessary for the Legislature to respond to critical public needs.  If one wants to see how laws are made at the state Capitol, they should read the committee reports that accompany any proposed revisions.2  Committee reports are written for the purpose of explaining why changes have been made to a bill or resolution. 

How Laws Are Made.  Mr. Borreca did the public a disservice by oversimplifying the legislative process.  The Legislature has a system of checks and balances in place to protect our democratic form of governance.  Public hearings were held on all three measures and there are opportunities for public input.  Changes were made to the resolutions following public input received by the committee and a proposed draft was circulated for comments before the resolutions were reported out of the committee.  In addition, these resolutions will need to be voted on by both the full Senate and House of Representatives before they can be adopted.  The democratic process is further protected by rules requiring advance public notice for committee hearings and votes by the full Senate. 

1 The three resolutions are SCR 77, SCR 169, and SCR 112. 

2 See Standing Committee Report No. 1773 for SCR 77, Standing Committee Report No. 1771 for SCR 169, and Standing Committee Report No. 1767 for SCR 117.