HONOLULU — The House of Representatives adopted a resolution formalizing new committee assignments Tuesday morning. This comes two days after it was revealed that Reps. James Tokioka and Isaac Choy were dismissed from the House Finance Committee the day before
HONOLULU — The House of Representatives adopted a resolution formalizing new committee assignments Tuesday morning.
This comes two days after it was revealed that Reps. James Tokioka and Isaac Choy were dismissed from the House Finance Committee the day before special session began regarding funding the Honolulu rail project.
The new committee assignments are part of a broader House reorganization and administrative housekeeping that follows from the change in Speaker at the end of the 2017 regular session.
Rep. Dee Morikawa (D-16) told TGI in a previous story that changes are normal when a new Speaker takes office, but was surprised that changes were made so soon before the five-day special session which began Monday.
Tokioka (D-15) told TGI shortly after he was removed from the finance committee that he thinks he was pushed aside due to his opposition to the way the rail was going to be funded.
There were more than 50 changes made to committee assignments based on member requests, changes to caucus and GOP caucus requests.
Tokioka was moved to the Consumer Protection & Commerce committee, as well as the intrastate Commerce and Veterans, Military & International Affairs & Culture and the Arts committees.
Morikawa said Monday that she was moved from the committees of Health and Services, and has been reassigned to the Judiciary and Legislative Management committees.
Nadine Nakamura (D-14) was assigned to the Finance, Housing and Transportation committees, while Choy was assigned to the Legislative, Tourism Intrastate and Veterans, Military & International Affairs & Culture and the Arts committees.
