‘Gut and replace’ can be effective tool
‘Gut and replace’ can be effective tool
I’d like to respond to your Sept. 28, “Our View” regarding one of the arguments for having a constitutional convention or “con con.” You state that the con con should be held to remove the practice known as “gut and replace.” You accurately define “gut and replace” as a “strategy used by legislators to significantly or completely change a bill’s content and purpose deep into the legislative process.”
When the April 2018 major flooding occurred, it was too late in the legislative process to introduce a bill to provide $125 million in state funding to address the devastation on Kauai and Honolulu. The money committees took a previously introduced bill relating to the state budget proposing to fund a live stock feed mill and waste stream recycling facility on Oahu (that was not going to be funded), gutted it, and replaced it with language to ensure that funds would be immediately available to address rockslides, road and stream debris clearance, infrastructure, and other flood-related needs.
The state Legislature approved this “gut and replace” bill within 10 days of the flood. It was then immediately hand-delivered to the governor’s desk for his approval.
I agree that “gut and replace” should not be used frequently. But there are some situations, such as the one described above, when this tool is needed and legitimately serves a public purpose.
Nadine K. Nakamura, State House of Representatives, District 14
E’O, right on-point, mAhalo
Sorry Rep. Nakamura, but your justification for gut-and-replace is bogus. Surely you are aware that every year there are numerous “short form” bills introduced in the legislature which have a bill number but no content, just waiting in the shadows for some clever legislator to insert content late in the session after normal deadlines for introducing bills have passed. Any unexpected emergency can be handled by using such a bill in a straightforward way, including committee hearings and public testimony. I hope that this year the people will rise up and amend the Constitution by deleting bad old provisions and inserting new ones that the arrogant legislators would never otherwise allow us to consider; such as initiative, referendum, and recall.