We did it!
Today, both the House and Senate took decisive steps that likely mean the end of the Public Lands Development Corporation. The House voted to move HB 1133 out of its final committee assignments. The Senate Water Land Committee gutted and replaced SB 707 with verbal amendments that appear to result in a clean repeal of the PLDC.
Does this mean the PLDC is dead? Not quite yet. The House has to hold two floor votes on HB 1133. The Senate Ways and Means Committee still has to hear and move SB 707 and then two floor votes need to occur. Then one of these two bills needs to move through the other body (HB 1133 needs to go through the Senate or SB 707 needs to go through the House). The House or Senate could simply vote to accept the other’s bill and then it would go straight to the Governor. Then the Governor could either sign the bill, allow it to become law without his signature, or veto it.
That’s a lot of steps, but plainly we’ve overcome the biggest obstacles. In principle, it seems like all parties have committed to repealing the PLDC.
What an amazing turnaround from just five or six months ago. This is the power of grassroots. This is the power of the people. No organization or individual could have created this result alone. Only by standing together and ensuring our united voices are heard did we achieve this result. I hope YOU, the committed activist, takes credit for this victory. And I hope we can keep our commitment to united action. Only together can we achieve these types of results.
Got a few seconds? Take a moment to say “thank you” to the legislators that helped make this result happen. All of the Chairs deserve credit for allowing the repeal bills to move forward, including the maligned Senator Malama Solomon. But I would specially recognize (in no particular order) Senators Les Ihara, Jr., Laura Thielen, Russell Ruderman, Clayton Hee and Representatives Nicole Lowen, Cindy Evans, Karen Awana, Tom Brower, Lauren Cheape, Denny Coffman, Richard Fale, Beth Fukumoto, Faye Hanohano, Mark Hashem, Kaniela Ing, Aaron Johanson, Chris Lee, Bob McDermott, Angus McKelvey, John Mizuno, Dee Morikawa, Scott Saiki, Roy Takumi, and Cynthia Thielen as folks that really pushed on this issue. You can find their contact information here.
With aloha,
Robert