 Thank you for registering for today's presentation, I'm Bob Toyofuku from the Pacific Law Institute. And before I introduce the speakers, let me mention some preliminary matters. First of all, what are we going to cover this morning. We'll discuss whether the Capitol will be closed or and maybe eventually open. We'll discuss a little bit about the schedule. And a lot of time will be spent on hearings and testimony. And the Finance Chair and Ways and Means Vice Chair will discuss the budget and physical issues. And we will also talk about the conference committee process. If you have any questions, please check the Q&A box and you can write your questions in there and we'll do our best to answer as many of them as possible during the presentation. For those of you who need closed captions, you can press the CC button on the bottom of your screen and check, click request, and then you should be able to get closed captions. Basic information before we introduce the speakers. Make sure that you're aware of the legislative website, which is capital.Hawaii.gov. There's a general information and frequently asked questions on the website. And also the public access room has created a guide, and that will be very helpful for anybody who wants to get more information. But don't forget the state's state ethics website for reporting requirements that you are responsible for if you are going to do any lobbying at the state legislature. So let me take a, by the way, before I start the session obviously is going to open on January 19, and we'll close on March 5, so it's a more or less a normal 60 day session with the recesses that are included. Let me introduce the speakers for this morning's presentation, and I'd like to thank them up front for being available and spending the time to give you an idea of how the 2022 session will be conducted. Right now we have Senator Ronald Kochi, who is the Senate President, Representative Scott Psyche, who is the Speaker of the House. Senator Drew Mamu Kanuha, who is the Senate Majority Leader. Representative Della Albalotti, who is the House Majority Leader. Senator Gilbert Keith Agaran, who is Vice Chair of the Ways and Means Committee in the Senate, and lastly Representative Sylvia Luke, who is the Chair of the House Finance Committee. So I really appreciate the time that they're spending to make this presentation and the preliminary meetings that we've had. I'll turn it over now to Senate President Ronald Kochi and House Speaker Scott Psyche to make a few comments and advise you as to whether the Capitol is going to be open or stay closed for initially. Thank you again and speaker. So thank you Bob. You immediately had somebody firing away in the chat I guess you said session would run from January 19 to March 5 and the correction in the box is accurate it would be May 5 or a single day mile is when we would anticipate the ending session but you know that shows that everybody's alert and I must say this is amazing I'm looking at 555 participants this is the largest meeting I've participated in and so I really appreciate and thank you for your interest. My part to talk about the opening of the Capitol will be brief the Capitol won't be open. Thank you very much. No actually the speaker and I, you know have been meeting and we've been engaged with both of our caucuses, and we were looking forward to having the Capitol open on March night I mean January 19. We had looked at some limited family perhaps attending because we couldn't have a traditional opening and having the gallery open based upon the gathering limits that the city or the mayor had in place. As the numbers continue to rise we met regularly and we finally made a determination and issued a statement on Wednesday morning that we're going to continue with the Capitol being closed on January 19. We're going to be continuing to monitor the numbers as far as positives and more importantly hospitalizations and you know we do anticipate at some point the Capitol will be reopened. And if it is reopened, it would follow the process of any other state facility that's currently open need proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter. We realize we'd have people walking in so we have been discussing having a checkpoint so you could enter from the rotunda area and a second checkpoint at the glass doors where we would be able to verify the information. So initially we're going to operate as we had operated last session, and we would have the remote participation available. When we reopen, I hope we can have a hybrid system. I've been talking for years about trying to have that as an availability initially because of the cost and impact on neighbor island residents who wanted to testify but I realize now it might be easier to get from lehue to the Capitol and back to lehue and to drive from Nanapooli or Waianae and get into the Capitol and get back home, as well as the fact that we have people with underlying medical conditions and those by virtue of their experience position in life who may not feel comfortable being in the hearing room. And so, you know, we'll work towards seeing when we reopen, when we do reopen then we'll articulate a clear set of policies and procedures about how we're going to operate. And I simply close with one of the things Bob had on the list for speaker night to discuss, would there be time limits? Yes, there will be time limits whether we're open or not. We have so many conference rooms and 16 committees. And so committee, you know, the first committee needs to end on time so that the second committee can convene and we're able to transact all of the people's business. With that I'll turn it over to the speaker. Thank you Bob and to all of the participants. Thank you, Senator President. Thanks Bob. Thanks for organizing this event. It's just we're happy to see the turnout. I think it reflects, you know, the public's interest in what will happen in this upcoming session. So I wanted to, you know, before I start, I wanted to just emphasize that, you know, the President Kochi and I, we waited to the very last minute to decide whether or not the building will be open and that's because we did not want to close the building. We wanted the building to be open. We wanted the public to have an opportunity to be here in the building during the session. It was only because the numbers, as you know, exponentially increased that we had to make the very difficult decision to close the building. But as the President mentioned, we will be reviewing, you know, we will be assessing the numbers, the COVID numbers as we go forward and we will revisit this decision to close the building when the numbers improve. So I wanted to just go over a couple of areas. One is on the committee hearings and the procedure and, you know, some of what I'm going to be saying really applies more to the House because the Senate does have its own procedures as well for how committee hearings will be conducted. Testimony will be received in writing and or verbally via zoom. The House hearing notices will provide the instructions to submit testimony. The notices and instructions are also on our website. As Bob mentioned, it's capital dot Hawaii dot GOV for the House hearing notices will be posted 48 hours prior to the hearing, except that Monday and Tuesday hearings will be noticed on the preceding Friday by 430 p.m. If you're checking the website for notices, you can also subscribe to hearing notices. And again, the instructions and the deadlines to submit written testimony is will be on the hearing notice, the hearing notices. If you have difficulty accessing the hearings, you can call the committees, the committee clerk's office or the committee vice chair vice chair's office, and that information will be provided on the hearing notices. The vice chairs of our committees will be responsible for assembling testimony into the members electronic testimony packets. And our House IT staff will be in the conference rooms will be monitoring the proceedings and running the YouTube, the YouTube, the House YouTube channel. And just, you know, importantly, for those of you who have not already done so, if you want to submit testimony, you need to create an account in order to do that. So, if you haven't done that yet, you should just do that right away if possible. You can set it up on the capital dot Hawaii dot GOV website. And if you have any questions about that you can call the House chief clerk's office or the House Senate chief clerk's office. And I don't have, I don't have screen sharing. So I'm going to just show you on the website where where you have to go to create this because you have on our website. There's a section. I don't know if you can see it or you can't really see it, but there's a link on our website called testimony. So you click on the testimony link, and it will take you to another page where you can create your account. I think there was a question about meetings with members as the president mentioned the building will be closed and you know our members are requested to not hold in person meetings in the capital while we are while we are closed. For safety protocols, as you probably already know, we did adopt a legislative building policy for the capital that requires a vaccination card or a negative test result within the past 48 hours. At this time, a booster shot is not required. As the president mentioned, we will be using private security firms when we begin session. So there will be two security stations one will be set up in the basement, the capital basement, and the second will be set up on the rotunda. But you know because the building is closed, the role of the security stations really is to just monitor what's happening when one session begins. But you should also expect that the security stations will continue even after the building reopens. You know we wanted this president and I felt that we needed to really beef up our security system in the building. And so you will continue to see the security the private security guards at the capital. So Bob that was all that I have. Any questions. Thank you very much speaker and senate president and just to mention a couple of things I had said at the outset there is a CC button at the bottom of zoom, and I don't see it either. That's for closed captioning, and I just sent a message to J Fidel and think that to check on that because it was there when we were testing it, and he will do some checking as to what happened. So, there are some other questions but let me now turn it over to representative Della Balati and Senator drew canoe to talk about anything that they would like to discuss with regard to the schedule such as bill introduction deadlines, any kind of other limitations, and then we'll go into hearings and testimony. So, let's let's have Senator canoe and represent a Balati on the on the screen, Eric, thanks. Senator, did you want me to jump in first I can jump in is. So one thing to just stress is actually this session, we're returning to our normal calendar. So if there's any bright spot, we're not cutting conference short like we did last year and there is a little bit of return to post coven normality. What I would say is that, you know, we're excited to be going into session this is going to be a critical year, lots of things are popping right now and we're going to be taking up some very serious, a long term issues longstanding issues. In terms of key deadlines and timelines, you know in the house we do have some bill introduction limits. We've been studying the way that the numbers that members have been introducing over several years. It's been well over a decade. And so we do have bill limits but even with those limits, you know, you can get your idea into the hopper. So members are limited to 10 bills a year for for the set for this part of the biennial. We do have some flexibility for chairs we're allowed to do 15 bill introductions and there's also a process where waivers and exceptions can be made for any kind of emergency situations and that goes through leadership and the speaker's office There's also our caucuses that have bill introduction opportunities because this is the biennium and because we were concerned about some of the cove concerns and the timeline and the schedules caucuses this year are limited to five bills a year. So many of you who are on this call and I really do appreciate that there's over 500 folks here. You know we have great caucuses that work with stakeholder groups over the course of the interim. And so, many of them are now in the process of going through their prioritizations and getting their bills also set and ready for introduction. So that's, that's the main things I wanted to emphasize about bill introduction and that part of the early timetable. I'll throw it back to Senator Kanuha. Thanks, Rep Bellotti. So, morning everybody. As Rep Bellotti stated, you know the basic legislative timetable is the joint calendar of the Senate and the House and similar to past years most of the major deadlines are identical between the two chambers so you can look on the capital website to see the timeline table which should be posted there. Any differences that from the House calendar that you want to be made aware of basically decking deadlines as well as bill crossover deadlines in the Senate House are identical. There are lateral deadlines that are included on an internal Senate timetable. So these deadlines are there to ensure that bills move from one Senate committee to another and a timely matter in order to meet major crossover between the House and the Senate. The Senate also has additional internal deadlines related to our advice and consent responsibilities. So again, the Senate internal calendar is available on the Senate page of the capital website. In terms of bill introduction, you know traditionally for the Senate there has been no limit on the number of bills that senators can introduce. But the unlimited bill introduction deadline in the Senate is Friday, January 21. Thereafter from Monday, January 24 to Wednesday, January 26. Each senator can introduce five bills per day. So, in terms of what bills are referred to what committees, you know, I think one of the questions was asked whether there will be triple referrals. Sometimes bills have been and can be triple referred depending on the content of the measure. However, you know the Senate tries to limit referrals whenever possible so just kind of a little update on how that process goes. And I jumped in since I forgot something to mention a few things. The House also has a five day limit beginning January 24 through Wednesday, January 26 so that's a five day per limit. In addition, there are some other critical key dates post introduction of bills and I would share that you know we do still have our mandatory five day recess. That will start in on February 24 and go through March 2. And I think what you'll see is a lot of members going out into the community. Getting feedback. And that's the whole purpose of the mandatory recess is to get feedback from community members about the legislative process. The other two big key dates, especially for those folks who are really tracking to make sure their ideas move, which will be even more critical given the new building that we have from from the Hawaii Supreme Court, you know, so bills surviving these critical deadlines are going to be even more important. The first critical deadline is March 10 first crossover. So that's a big moment when there will be bills that may not make it, and then second crossover on April 14. So all of this as Senator can who has says is on the website, triple referrals in the house. We will probably see triple referrals that always happens in the house because we want to make sure that all of the chairs who have responsibility on particular topics have to vet those ideas. And so that'll be a process that occurs the referral process for the house occurs almost immediately as soon as the bills start to get introduced. That's something that's done by leadership and then we try to do that very quickly so that members can start to schedule hearings. Thank you representative just quick things. The, could I just before you get into the next part. Yeah, I just wanted to say I don't know. You know I know it's been reported in the news but there was that landslide in Waimea where representative Mark how lives and some residents have been cut off with being able to get past the swinging bridge so I'm involved and got involved since early this morning we're trying to coordinate food drive and supplies so I'm going to be signing off right now and attend to that matter in West Kauai but I'm leaving you in capable hands with Senators Kanuha and Keith Agaran. Thank you I see the number has now gotten to over 600 participants this is just a real amazing job of engagement so thank you. Thank you Mr President. Actually, as of this morning, we had 750 people registered and obviously some people can't make it. And there were questions that already came up as to the replay this is being recorded, and think I'm going to put this on YouTube, and have to replays as well. So those that have missed that will want to see it again. You can go on YouTube, once it's loaded up on YouTube to get a more, more detail. And let's go to the hearings and testimony, and we'll start with the Senate first with Senator Kanuha and Senator Keith Agaran, about how the Senate is going to conduct its hearings and I think that Senator Agaran will also talk about how WAM ways and means hold their hearings. So we'll begin the session conducting hearings the same way we did in 2021 Senators will have the option to attend hearings in our Senate conference rooms or remotely via zoom. So for now, since the Capitol building is closed, you know, of course we invite the public to participate remotely via zoom. All of our hearings are live streamed on the Senate's YouTube channel and you can view the recorded videos at your convenience I think it's been really helpful for a lot of people around the state and even, you know, you see a lot of people even in the mainland looking up on the Senate's YouTube channel. So we'll continue to accept written testimony, which can be submitted via the Legislature's website and will be posted online. This was an approach, this approach may change later in session and we look forward to definitely having in-person testimony when the building reopens. In terms of hearings overall, the volume of hearings will be at the discretion of each subject matter committee chair. Virtual meeting options have allowed businesses to continue as usual. In terms of how the hearings will be scheduled, the subject matter chairs have full discretion on scheduling hearings in their respective committees. To that regard, it is important to communicate early and often with the chair or their clerks to request hearings on bills in their committees. Just like in past years, Senate committees are assigned to specific days and times to hold committee hearings. The hearing schedule will likely be very similar to the last session and the final 2022 hearing schedules will be posted on the Legislature's website. So for your reference, the 2021 Senate and House Committee hearing schedules can be found on our website's homepage. Senate committees are required to provide public notice of its hearings and for the first hearing on a measure, notice is required at least 72 hours before the meeting. 48-hour notice is required for all subsequent meetings. These most requirements may be waived if good cause is shown. Obviously the Senate tries to keep waivers to a minimum, so that's kind of a basic deal if you want to chime in any additional go right ahead. Yeah, the only thing I would add is even though it's up to the committee chairs to decide what bills to hear, they are going to have to be very conscious if they're a first committee to get their work done within the time period. And so as you saw in 2021, there's going to be fairly strict time limits on oral testimony. And it also may put some limitations on our members to get to the point of their questions. You know, a lot of people like these talking questions where they're actually making a speech rather than asking a question. And I think if they want to be effective this year, I think they're going to have to get right to the point and allow the public to provide their actual input. I think for ways and means, as a generally we're going to be a second committee, meaning that there will be a substantive hearing on a bill at an earlier hearing. So most of the work at Ways and Means, Consumer Protection and Judiciary for the most part will be decision making meetings, meaning that we will take written testimony and then we'll be voting on whether to move bills forward based on that written testimony. If there are going to be substantive amendments to a particular bill, then I think the chairs of Judiciary, Consumer Protection and Ways and Means will probably hold hearings and then we'll follow the same process as the other committees, meaning that we'll take oral testimony and written testimony and there'll be some questioning back and forth. And I think there was, you know, the people might have some concerns about what the impact of the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision is going to be on how we do amendments. And right now I think for the most part, I think we all believe that most of the amendments that are made to bills are germane to the subject matter and so we don't see that the decision that the Supreme Court issued will change how we operate. And that, you know, we have short form bills and we have other, we were looking at some of our rules and I could see us being able to function generally the same as we function in the past. You know, if there is an emergency, I think the President mentioned the Waimea Nance Live today, if there is an emergency and we need to deal with something, then, you know, we do have some tools to deal with that as well. And I'm sure that we can reach some agreement with the governor and with the House on extending the session as needed to deal with those types of emergencies. Thank you, Senator. Just a quick comment, you know, I'm glad that Senator Agaron explained the Ways and Means hearing process because a lot of the hearings are written testimony only if you're not familiar with that. And there's no oral testimony because the Ways and Means really does decision making in many of their hearings. Let me repeat that because I see the questions. We will, we are recording this presentation, and we will be putting it on YouTube so people can watch it later on, and maybe O'Lellow and Think Deck will replay this periodically throughout January. Senator, is there any other comment on the hearings with testimony? I did want to mention, I know there's a question earlier and I'll go back to the hearings and shortly, but in terms of referrals, there's a question about who refers the bills in the Senate. I myself, Senator Keith Agaron and Senator Lesihara will be on the referral committee this year, so we're preparing a schedule right now on when to meet obviously when the bills are introduced and get those referrals out as soon as possible. So that's to answer that question that was brought up earlier. Yes, Senator Agaron said previously, you know, we're trying to accommodate as many testifiers as possible to be able to live stream all hearings including multiple simultaneous meetings. So the committees have had to adopt a more rigid time schedule. They've had to wrap up their hearings on time, instead of continuing beyond their schedule blocks as they may have done in the past. So as a result, many chairs have instituted testimony time limits to ensure their hearings are conducted efficiently and expeditiously as expeditiously as possible. In terms of, I know there's a question about virtual, it was said earlier, you know, we're, we're trying to evolve as much as possible with the continuing guidelines that are put out with the city and county of Honolulu and the governor so you know it's our intention to continue live streaming all hearings and provide the public with the option to testify remotely, even after the building eventually opens. So Senate leadership will be reevaluating the situation in the coming weeks, and we'll definitely post information on the website when the building does reopen. So just want to mention that. And maybe the only other thing to add is, if I think I saw a question about whether, how would a person determine whether they're still registered to submit testimony. If you're not sure, I think you should go ahead and register again to make sure that you can submit testimony. I think that's the safest thing to do. Senator. Okay, let me now turn it over to Representative Della Balati and Representative Sylvia Luke to talk about how the House will handle the hearings and the testimony. I'll jump in first and then hand it over to Representative Luke, but there. I'd like to emphasize both something that Senator Agaran Keith Agaran said and Speaker psyche said, most importantly go and set up an account at capital dot Hawaii dot gov. And if you've done it before but haven't used your account a long time do it now again and just refresh your familiarity with the site, because once you do that there's a wealth of information, information and instructions about how to participate and provide testimony online and sign up for remote testimony. I just want to mention that once you create an account you're going to see that there's this 24 hour deadline that's talked about in submitting testimony. And what I'd like to, I think, Senator canoe you may want to come back on later and I don't know how hard of a deadline that is for the Senate, but on the House side, we really have had to beef up our tech staff and so this allows and enables them to prepare sometimes what can be very voluminous testimony. So we encourage folks, especially on the House side to submit testimony 24 hours in advance of the hearing date. Now that deadline is not a hard and fast deadline if you miss it, you can still submit testimony afterwards. And in both the House and the Senate, the submission of written testimony will then get you the invitation the zoom link to be able to participate in the remote portion on the day of the hearing. So on the House side if you miss that 24 hour deadline, you will still be able to have your testimony accepted and processed it may be identified as late versus on time, and then all of that testimony after the hearing will be posted. I believe in the house what happens is the testimony that has been processed prior to that 24 hour deadline will be posted at the start of the hearing. So again, really sign up early and you know, recognize that if you miss that deadline at least in the house you can still, you still have time to be able to submit testimony and still get that link and still participate up to the very minute of the actual start of the hearing, but we don't want to put you in that position because what sometimes happens is once the hearing starts, we encourage folks to log in early, so that if there's any assistance that needs to happen, any instructions from our IT staff to participants, they can do that in the waiting room. And so we really encourage folks to participate virtually as the Senate does as well. That's the main part that I wanted to highlight with the difference of hearing and testimonies generally the chairs do get to determine scheduling of bills in on our side as well. I'll turn it over now to Representative Luke. Thank you. Thank you everybody for joining us today for finance and other afternoon committees in the house. As you know, we allow oral testimony in addition to written testimony. So in the past it was not unusual for a finance committee to start sometimes in the afternoon at 2pm and go till midnight. So at every start of the hearing we ask for your indulgence and your patience and also you know my request to everyone is because all the members have written testimony ahead of time. The expectation on the members is that they come to the hearings prepared and have read the testimony. So in as much as you read your testimony word for word I know you know people believe that hey you know if they read word for word we will have better impact but a lot of times as it gets long and then you know we're closing in at 10pm or 11pm you know you lose a little bit of attention span for legislators as well who's been there since 2pm. So I ask for your indulgence in summarizing your testimony. There is no limit. We try not to limit the amount of time. I know for morning committees they try to tell testifiers to keep it at one minute or two minutes only because they're limited by sessions. So if they start at 8, 9 o'clock they have to finish by 1130 so there might be a limitation on time. I try not to limit only because you don't want time limitation to take away from your message but at the same time if you can summarize it will have much more impact and we would have so much greater appreciation and then it will have a lot of impact as well. I would say that we the finance committee do am we here on a year I would say somewhere between 600 to 900 bills and that's a huge volume of bills just in maybe like two weeks time because you know we're known as the back end committee and we have to deal with a lot of volume. I get questions about whether or testifiers would try to make substantive changes in finance committee and I try to discourage that only because we want to empower the subject matter chairs and the subject matter committees to take consideration and make changes in the subject matter so we try not to make substantive changes because we feel that that's the jurisdiction of the subject matter so a lot of times you know we try to get as many bills out of our committee but it's going to be passed as is because we respect the jurisdictional lines. We will hear and consider carry over bills. This is the second year of the biennium so all bills introduced and introduced last year that have not gotten hearings in certain committees only because of the time constraints or time constraints or you know because of couldn't reach an agreement or certain problems those are still alive and as opposed to starting over if there's a I think you should talk to the committee chairs who you are working with or you know legislators that you are working with and see if those bills can be reconsidered and even if it's in conference committee we have the ability to revive those in conference committee so you don't have to start all over and that's one of the ways that you can help us through this process as well. Rep Luke or Rep Bellotti. One question that came up is, are we able to send more than one piece of testimony per account, or is it still limited to only one testimony per account. That is a stumper for us. I am actually putting a sending a text right now to our it folks. I know that that was the situation last session so I don't know if we have a fix for that yet. Senator can you have any insights on that one. I don't have an update on that one. But we can definitely look it up. Thank you. Representative Luke one of the questions that I have is that when a committee member has a question of a testifier who's testifying obviously virtually. Do you allow the question to be asked, while the person is at the time the person finished his or her testimony, or do you go to the next person and then call that person back at the end of the testimony on that particular bill. The way that we usually run our hearings is that we take all the testimony for one particular bill and then we allow members to ask questions after all the testimony for that specific bill is finished only because there might be duplicative meetings or there might be Connor arguments and you want the members to hear everything before the member asked. Thank you rep look rep a lot of with regard to the substantive committees not finance. Do you allow the same process that they usually wait until the testimony on that particular bill is done and then ask questions and the testifier should wait in the hold or the waiting room to be called back. This is just a similar process. In terms of the waiting room, you know, because the committees are different sizes and are dealing with different volumes, they may be pulled out of the waiting room earlier, and be so so again, that could be a different from committee to committee, because again of the size and the volume. That's why people should sign in early to be able to get the instructions from the IT staff. Thank you, Senator can do I and Senator agar on do you does the Senate follow the same kind of process that they wait until the testimony is done on a particular bill and then a committee member can ask the question. I think that really depends on the chair because we give them complete discretion how they run their meeting so, especially when it's a bill that has a volume of amount of testimony. Sometimes it makes more sense to ask the questions as, as the testimony is given and I think it's, we sort of leave that to discretion of the chairs I think we, we expect that they will, they know how to run their committees and they know how to run it the most effective way. Any comments in a canoe for the substantive committees, probably the same way. The scene is a Senator agar on Keith agar on describe. Okay, let me check on hang on one second while. But Bob, maybe, maybe I'll just bring up one thing. You know, obviously again, you know, to emphasize to create an account is is it's, you know, to submit testimony it's it's easy it's fast. If you do need any assistance definitely you can contact the legislature's public access room. You know, the office was created to assist the public in learning about and participating in the legislative process. Their website includes helpful guides and videos and the staff is super knowledgeable so definitely contact the Hawaii public access room you can look it up on the on Google. I think that the email is PR at capital dot Hawaii dot gov, or you can call them. I had that number somewhere 808-587-0478 and they can help you with any needs. Any questions you have. Thank you, Senator. There was a question is while we are in the waiting room. Can we also see and hear the full hearing. And I believe you can just because you're in the waiting room. That doesn't mean that you are, you know, not, you're totally off the screen. How would you be able to give. Be able to give oral testimony, only if the only way you can get the link to participate is by submitting written testimony. I think that when we used to have live hearings, the chair would always at the end of the hearing after people that have sent in written testimony they would ask, does anybody else want to testify. I don't think that is the process anymore. So unless you send in written testimony. You are not able to testify. Is that correct representatives and senators. Rep Bellotti, you know, the question is that if the person is not sent in written testimony. I can't remember any chair saying, is there anybody else that wants to testify that may be on the zoom, watching it, but has never sent in any room testimony. Yes, I think chairs will recognize folks. The thing is, is if you are in the zoom room, you will have have to submit some kind of testimony to get that zoom link. So what oftentimes we will see is testimony, I support, and that's it. And so then person a person wants to amplify and add to their testimony which they might obviously want to do. That's when in the remote proceeding they're able to then chime in. So it's a little bit of a, it is still a requirement to submit something in order to get the zoom link. Thank you representative that that's a tip from representative Bellotti, you know a lot of times you get the notice or you're watching, and that you really realize that a bill that you're interested in. You just saw the notice and you don't have time to really submit the testimony, but if you send in anything you know I support I oppose, then you're going to get the zoom link so that you can go on the hearing. And, like rep Bellotti said, expand on it. One question what is the process to submit revised testimony from last session the submittal system except only one testimony per account I think that was the earlier question as well. I don't know the answer to that I don't know what the question is how you submit revised testimony. I can pretty tackle that. So, even if we weren't in a virtual system revised testimony isn't really something that's taken. Even when we are in normal times right if you revise your testimony there's no process to do that. So essentially what comes in by the time of the start of the hearing is what comes in. And the way our process works is if you have changed testimony and you're and the bill keeps moving that's when you can at the next hearing submit additional testimony to help enlighten legislators. Can I make a quick clarification Bob because I just got a text message from our again our handy staff, IT staff people. For the house hearings. We don't hold people in the waiting rooms while the entire hearing is going on so as soon as the hearing opens we let anyone who's in the waiting room into the room so that they can then hear the testimony I don't believe that if you're sitting in the waiting room you can actually hear what's going on you would have to have an additional TV or an additional computer where you could watch it from the YouTube channels or from a Lello and so really again important to come early to hearing so that you can get into the hearing at least on the house side and then there was another question that I wanted to address about is there a time limit or is there a limit of testifiers. There is no limit placed on testifiers the chairs have been really good in the first time that we went all virtual and getting to all of the testifiers I didn't encounter anything where people were cut off. There are going to be situations however when there are going to be a lot a lot of testifiers and at that point in time chairs again have that discretion to run their meetings. In the way that they see fit so that they can get through all of the testifiers I think that's that's most of my clarifications at this point Bob turning it over back to you. Thank you. There was a question. Let's see just I just lost it who refers bills in the house. And thank you to Senator canoe for answering that so either rep Ladi or rep Luke you know who are the house members that refer the bills. Sure, I'll take that I say house leadership and I apologize for using kind of our internal acronyms. That is, for the house it's speaker, vice speaker myself and majority floor leader representative D. Thank you. Thank you. There was a statement by a house legislator to just wanting to clarify if advocates are online and have the zoom link they will not be denied the opportunity to testify. I thought that there was a glitch or something happened this happened in one committee meeting last year, and she just wanted to clarify that if you have the zoom link you will not be denied. I know I don't want to go all the way back but you know another reason why written testimony we have that requirement you know we want to make sure that the committee can still consider someone's input, you know, if there are technical problems during the next few years turn to speak. So that's another important reason why it's you, it's good to submit, or it's the requirement to submit written testimony, you know as was the case before the pandemic. The Senate asked for written testimony to submit to be submitted at least 24 hours before the hearing anything submitted inside of the 24 hour cut off will still be added to the record, but may not be posted online, or distributed to the members of the committee before the hearing begins. Thank you Senator I think that kind of addresses one of the questions that if they wanted to submit revised testimony whether it has to be within 24 hours because the original testimony comes in 24 hours ahead of time, and they get the zoom link. Like 12 hours later they put in revised testimony that may not show up to the committee members, but it may end up on the record of some sort. This is a real technical quote well let's see where did it go. Sorry. Hang on one second. This was, you know, somebody just asked a question with any of the legislature legislators being in favor of increasing testimony time for kupuna. And anyway, that that's the basic question. Generally, again, let me point out that the chairs have complete control over their committee hearings. If, even if even with the whatever the one minute or three minute limit that different chairs use. If they feel like they need to provide more time they certainly have discretion to do that on the Senate side. And I think on the House side there is no limit is what I heard the majority leader say and I want to clarify that our chairs also have discretion. Some chairs do use two minute deadline time times, and really it's a mechanism that they, they often use because they have so many bills and so many testifiers lined up. But again, the chairs have the discretion, and you'll often see them use that, especially because they have in front of them you know what their agenda is like. If it if it's just three bills you know for the earlier committees, but but really it's it's the chairs discretion. And then again so for finance committee we don't put a limit on the time. I think the, the, the one thing to note is when things are remote testifiers and the testifiers don't know how many people are actually waiting in the room. Capital was open you can see you know sometimes hundreds of people waiting to testify and I think that put some pressure on the testifier to give quick testimony but when you don't see anybody. You know, I think there's a tendency to take a while right. So, usually myself or other chairs will remind people hey you know we have about 100 people more testifying so if you can summarize. And for the most part, you know the public and the testifiers have been really great about that. So you know we continue to thank you for your patience. Thank you. There was one other question here. Last year, I recall you had to check a box to opt in for oral testimony when you were submitting written testimony. So it's not that you get the link just because you submitted written testimony. Is that the same this year I can't remember that particular thing. Reps and senators. I can. Can you restate the question. I'm sorry. Well, I think Bob the question is correct on the agenda, the posted agenda. Yeah, when you submit written testimony you also have an opportunity to say you want to submit oral. If you if you if you hit, if you check that off then you will get the link. So that you can get into the waiting room and will be able to be able to be called on. One question that came up or the led us the legislature considering making a public computer available, where people can come in to a limited space in the capital, or somewhere else and participating using zoom on that computer. There won't be anything at the capital like how they used to have it public access room, but I do want to encourage folks. I, my understanding is is that the public library, or public libraries across the state do have access and so I would check with your local library and Stacy Aldrich has been wonderful at making the libraries really hubs for for connectivity in places that are really remote and so I would look there as an option. Although I think as the chair as the senate president and the speaker said you know I think we all are approaching this as we're going to be very flexible as we continue on if the circumstances of the pandemic change and the rules that sitting in county have changed then you know we are going to be looking at all avenues to make sure that the public can get access to the legislature and if that means if we can set up something like that then we will look at that at the appropriate time but right now I think as the majority leader mentioned I think libraries are are a big resource for this. If any of the attendees watching this seminar have any other questions on hearings and testimony. Please send them into the q amp a box, and we will take a look at that. As soon as possible but in the meantime, let me turn this over to representative Luke and Senator gilagaron to talk about some of the budget issues and financial issues, as well as and I know there are some questions that came up to talk about the grant in aid that is going to be implemented this session. So I'll. Rep Luke and Senator Agaran if you can talk about the GIA process I guess rep Luke and I talked about it. And there is a something on the website that you can look at with details on how to apply and the requirements. I'll turn it over to Senator Keith Agaran to discuss GIAs. Sure. Thanks. And thank you to you and to share Delacruz for advocating to have GIAs this year and I think that I know that a lot of the nonprofits have not had the opportunity to apply for state grant in AIDS for the last two years. I will be offering this year, not $10 million in operating GIAs and $20 million in CIP GIAs. The process is the same as it has been in the past. There's a deadline to get your application and the application form is on the legislative website. The difference is that this year, we're not requiring you to submit the application by the deadline in hard copy. We're going to allow you to submit it by email. And I think that's something that both the House Finance and Senate Ways and Means have agreed on. Do you have anything else to add on that? Correct. And the deadline is December, sorry, January 21. It's usually the Friday. I know we're getting all our months and days are mixed up. You know, 2022 came so fast. The deadline is Friday, January 21. The only thing is that for mail, it's not postmark. We need to have it in hand by the 21st. So that might be a little bit tricky because you have to anticipate how long the Postal Service will take. So I encourage you to, if it's completed, submit it as early as you can because we're already scanning the documents. Thanks to Senator Agaran and Senator De La Cruz. They'll be overseeing the GIA for the House side. It's Representative Nishimoto who will be overseeing the GIA process or GIA application on the House's behalf. If you look in Senator Agaran, in prior years, when the Capitol was open, there would be a chance for all those who submitted a grant in aid to come to the Capitol in the auditorium and make a two-minute speech as to why they would get it. I'm going to handle that this year. Is there going to be a virtual session where people can spend a couple minutes to say why they deserve the GIA or expand on the application? Yes. That's something, the timing of that, we will still need to discuss with, you know, between myself and Senator De La Cruz, but we are hoping that we can do a virtual one. The information provided by the applicants, we have found them very useful and it allowed for the committee members and the legislators in charge of betting it an opportunity to ask questions as opposed to, you know, it's basically, in the past it was about over 270 applications so clearly legislators cannot take 270 meetings in such a short amount of time so that process has helped us vet through a lot of the applications so we're working towards that. Once the date is set, we will let all the applicants know. Thank you. Any other thing, Rev Luke or Senator Agaran, any financial issues that the audience should be aware of? So as you know, legislature received a governor's budget and I know a lot of people are talking about the one thing that stuck out to everybody was the administration's proposal to put a billion dollars into the rainy day fund. And I think many legislators are having some issues with that or, you know, they will want to take a look at it closer. In 2020, the Senate and the House had a joint package because that was in a time where the economy was strong and we were looking at further expansion and growth in our state's economy. In 2020, we had a package of bills that it was a joint package by the Senate and the House and the governor also agreed and it was the first time where Senate House and the governor agreed to four set of bills. One of the bills was dealing with tax equity and that bill would have allowed for EITC expansion and funding for credits and I think that is something that both the Senate and the House are interested in revisiting. The last two years were very difficult for a lot of people and as we continue to work towards economic recovery, I think it is important for us to take care of our low income families and our working families and I think the best way to do it is through tax credits and tax incentives. I think the finance chair raises a good point that, you know, we did have that joint package and there were a number of things that we were still able to pursue on the housing side but on some of the human service and childcare and health issues. Those are things that now I think we are going to take a close look at and look at revisiting. And I think it is also going to be an opportunity to take a look at how the homeless programs are doing and other health and human services issues. I know that one of the things that we want to make sure though is that if there is an opportunity to make investments in the economy and moving really moving for the first time towards real diversification. I think that is something that, at least on the Senate side, that is something that I know our chairs have expressed a lot of interest in. I know that Chair Dela Cruz has made that a key part of how he wants to work on bills that come to the Ways and Means Committee. And then you have a plan and how is this going to help with employment? How is it going to help with diversifying our economy? How is it going to help in just making life better for the people of Hawaii? So, yeah, certainly we're going to, we're looking forward to an expansion of the EITC to make it refundable. We already have it, but it's not refundable. And also I think this is something that we can agree with the House that, you know, maybe it's time to really look at the minimum wage and look at hiking. And I know that I think the Speaker has already, you know, put out a figure. And I don't know if we're going to get into a bidding war, but I'm sure that's something that's going to come up over the next part of the session. And in last session, even if we were looking at a budget deficit thanks to the assistance from the federal government, we were pleased that at the end we were able to restore many of the social services program because when we receive the governor's budget, the governor's budget reduced or substantially impacted sex assault services, HIV, and other critical services and at the end we were able to restore many of those things. But domestic violence services continue to be an issue as people are forced to stay home and many of these issues become exponentially difficult when you're in a situation where you have high stress and anxiety. So I think we will continue to be looking at supporting social services, social service programs and looking at Medicaid issues because as you know, you know, for the medical providers out there, you know, they have a hard time keeping their offices open or providing the services because the Medicaid reimbursement is very low. And if we can equalize some of those areas and provide additional help for Medicaid reimbursement, I think this is an opportunity for us to do that as well. And I think in conjunction with that obviously we want to focus a little bit more on mental health. I know that mental health services have had a lot of cuts, especially mental health in our schools because I know that the going to virtual learning was not the most beneficial for a lot of people in our school system. And I think mental health is going to be one of the focuses that the department that are there are health committee as well as our human services committee is going to be looking at this year. You know there was a question but it's really more like a suggestion. Whether there will be banners on the zoom hearing screen to show what bill is being testified on and they're suggesting that that would make it less confusing. And I just wanted to to make sure that you heard that that suggestion the other tip that came up was that the computers at the library a time limited and library limits usage of their PC to 50 minutes, but you can bring your own laptop in and use their Wi Fi and participate by headphones and the library computers are only available to people who have been vaccinated. So as we go into the last 15 minutes I'll check the Q&A as as we discuss some other things but one of the issues that came up last year because we only had a year a week for conference. And this year, at least there will be two weeks. But if things loosen up with regard to COVID. Is there a possibility that you would have some of a, is there a possibility that there could be some individuals allowed into the conference committee process. What what some of us found difficult last year was, you know, when you are monitoring a bill, and in prior years, you're there so you can give input right after the conference to the committee chair and members. And this year, or in 2021 is very difficult because then you have to call and you know, people, legislators are busy not always available but would that be a consideration I guess for conference, or is it going to be basically run the same way if the capital is shut down throughout the whole session. So I'm going to address that question by saying we're actually hoping or I personally am hoping that we can revise our policies. If the Omicron surge subsides. So we're not going to wait until conference to make that determination as Senate President said earlier we're going to this is subject to change. And so we have become very adaptable I will literally say that two weeks before the holidays, we were on calls, preparing to come back in person. And so we literally had to pivot in the last two days. We're going to be prepared to open up and in the event that we can open up. It will be the public will be able to come not just select groups of people for conference purposes it will be open to the public in a way that's fair and transparent and and the public will be allowed to come in. Now will there be requirements going through checkpoints. Yes, there, you know, we, that has become part of our new normal. And frankly, if to get into certain places you're going to have to meet certain requirements and so those will be rolled out at the appropriate time when we can reopen. Bob I think you we heard lot and clear right in person is better in the communications process and so that's what we're working towards a thorough to Senator can you help to add anything. Thanks, Rob Bellotti. Any other comments on the committee process. Yeah, I mean, Bob, you know, obviously, not to say the same thing that Rob Bellotti said but it's certainly our hope that we'll be able to open the building sooner rather than later and allow some type some level of public in person attendance by the time we get to conference period but you know it's it'll depend on the situation and the pandemic related guidance in effect later this year. You know I'd suggest not waiting until the conference period to provide your input. If the bill is something important to you submit testimony at the hearings held by the standing committees and and start to reach out to the appropriate chairs. Of course maybe your your district senator and representative earlier in the session. It becomes very busy during the conference time period and it will probably be more difficult to schedule a meeting or phone call during the period so sooner rather than later but I know bills change during the time so obviously we're always open to input during conference period during the conference period time but sooner rather than later. Thank you senator one comment that just came in that this person feels that well not only this person but the homeless problem is heartbreaking and she's asking the legislature to please focus on this issue I just wanted to mention that. I know I know there's a lot of suggestions in the in the chat box on if you could maybe I know you're bringing it up now but send it to us if you can somehow download it and send it to us at a, you know after this meeting is finished. Can you please do that. Yes, think that can bring it all up. We did it last year, some of the questions and other things in the chat, and I'll send it to all of you. So as we finish up here. I'd like to give all of you a chance to make some what I consider closing comments. I don't know I see I don't know if speaker psyche is still on or not I know that senate president have to take care of that situation on Hawaii, but I can start with I don't know if for any closing comments and then senator gilag around representative body and then representative look. Sure, and you know, as was stated that by senate president earlier it's pretty amazing to be on a panel with 500 600 plus people tuning in so thank you all for participating and again Mahalo Bob and j Thank you all for creating the space to share about the 22 22 legislative session. If you have any questions or require assistance during session please do not hesitate to reach out to any one of us or our staff again public access room, a lot of great information. There's a lot of work ahead of us but it's definitely great to do this with such passionate and experienced individuals so you know Mahalo for everything and, and I'll just turn it over. Senator Keith algorithm. Yeah, I also wanted to thank you and Jay for and the staff or PLI and think tech way for putting this on I think this is given the interest, given the number of people that are on this on this zoom tells me that there's a still a lot of interest in what's happening in this and I appreciate that the that people can be patient as we and flexible as we work through this because as I again let me emphasize that there could be changes actually, there could be changes coming forward. Depending on the situation of the COVID COVID situation as we go along and hopefully we will be moving towards more public access in person access. And I think all of us believe that that's something that we should be aiming for. And finally, I think there's a lot of information on the website on how you can participate and, and I think that's probably one of the best places to go and take a look and we'll be looking at all of the questions that came into the chat. And if there's a way to get responses. And maybe we'll be looking at putting data on the website to just, just as a follow up to what we did today. So again, thank you for tuning in. Thank you, Senator representative Balotti. Thank you. I got three buckets of points to make first I want to answer some questions that we left out. Someone asked if you want to just listen. I want to submit testimony online to and be and get the zoom link. I really urge folks who are just wanting to listen. There are options to watch our hearings on the Senate and House YouTube channels. This will really help with our IT staff and our broadband connectivity, unless you really want to provide testimony. There are other options to just watch and listen. The second question that went unanswered is right before the hearing where you get a zoom link. I want to leave you with this takeaway. The House policy is to really encourage engagement and participation in the hearing process. I cannot say that if you log in two minutes before hearing that everything will work smoothly and you will get a zoom link and you'll be able to testify. We really want to encourage folks to do things early. And so yes, while you may, you know, sign in and get a link. You will. Our staffers that are trying to do that because our house policy is very liberal to encourage participation, but we really urge people to do things early. I also have a question in the chat about Ken, because there are no appointments being scheduled or public meetings right now at the Capitol, can members still meet outside of the Capitol, yes, they can. So really, you know, you need to call the offices or the people you want to make appointments with and you can do that. My last kind of comment to this. I also want to extend my thanks to Bob and Jay, you guys have really proven the value of the zoom. We will be taking back some of these comments I in particular love the suggestion about banners and tickers, we will take these suggestions back right away. We don't know if we'll be able to implement all of these, but we will try our hardest. I think, you know, we're all learning how to be more effective virtually and remotely so thank you, Bob and Jay for providing this opportunity for us to to get better at what we're doing. Thank you. Representative Luke. Thank you. Mahalo Bob and everyone for tuning in today. You know your participation and your input will help us navigate through this difficult time. I think the lessons that we learned during the pandemic, you know, we won't forget and one of the, one of the bright spot was this opportunity to do virtual hearing even if we open up we will never get back to just completely in person because we saw the value of providing opportunities to the neighbor islands or opportunities to maybe local residents who might be abroad at that point to just sign in and participate and I think, you know that's something that we need to be better at and in the future we would like to provide public spaces around the state where people could go and you know participate whether it's not just for the capital for but for a land board or other type of boards and as we figure out how to provide broadband access to the most remote areas in the state I think we have to do better in providing that accessibility to be available to everybody so this has been really helpful and thank you very much and a lot of times you know during the session I know it's high stress and high anxiety and you know sometimes we don't know what's, you may not know what's going on and believe me a lot of times you know we don't really know what's going on either because things are moving so quickly. I would encourage you to make a lot of appointments talk to legislators and find out what's going on and I look forward to seeing you in person soon and, and that's kind of the missing part in the last two years we really miss having people at the capital so we look forward to the day when it's open again. Thank you very much Representative Luke. My final comments you know I'd like to thank all of the legislators Senate President Ronald Kochi, and House Speaker Scott Psyche, and the four legislators that are still on the panel in a Senator Kanuha and Senator Keith Agaran and Representative Bellotti and Representative Luke I really appreciate the time you took out to get prepared for this and to spend the time this morning to educate the public and those interested in the process. So thank you very much and thank you all of those who attended this seminar really appreciate your interest and your comments I think will be very helpful, not only to me as Pacific for Pacific Law Institute to do future public service seminars but also to the legislators. And lastly, think that will provide a quick evaluation survey, which I would hope that you would take a less than 30 seconds to fill out, and we can say that the seminar is finished and thank you again, and legislators thank you for spending the time. Appreciate it.