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2024 Hawaii legislative session

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2024 Hawaii legislative session
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General information
Scheduled session start:    Jan. 17, 2024

Scheduled session end:    May 3, 2024

Leadership
Senate President
Ronald Kouchi (D)

House Speaker
Scott Saiki (D)
Majority Leader
Senate: Dru Kanuha (D)
House: Nadine Nakamura (D)
Minority Leader
Senate: TBD
House: Lauren Cheape Matsumoto (R)

Elections
Next Election:    November 5, 2024

Last Election:    November 8, 2022

Previous legislative sessions
2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2024 legislative sessions


In 2024, the Hawaii State Legislature was scheduled to convene on January 17 and adjourn on May 3.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2022 elections. Democrats won a 23-2 majority in the Senate and a 45-6 majority in the House. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Democratic state government trifecta. At the start of the 2024 session, Hawaii was one of nine state legislatures where Democrats had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

At the beginning of the 2024 legislative session:
  • Democrats held a majority in the Hawaii state House and state Senate.
  • Hawaii was one of 17 Democratic state government trifectas.
  • Hawaii's governor was Democrat Joshua Green.

    • Leadership in 2024

    Hawaii State Senate

    Hawaii House of Representatives

    Partisan control in 2024

    See also: State government trifectas

    Hawaii was one of 17 Democratic state government trifectas at the start of 2024 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

    Hawaii was also one of nine state legislatures where Democrats had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

    The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Hawaii State Legislature in the 2024 legislative session.

    Hawaii State Senate

    Party As of January 2024
         Democratic Party 23
         Republican Party 2
    Total 25

    Hawaii House of Representatives

    Party As of January 2024
         Democratic Party 45
         Republican Party 6
    Total 51

    Standing legislative committees

    See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Hawaii state government


    A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

    At the beginning of the 2024 legislative session, there were 35 standing committees in Hawaii's state government, including 16 state Senate committees and 19 state House committees.

    Senate committees

    • Agriculture and Environment Committee
    • Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee
    • Committee on Labor and Technology
    • Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism Committee
    • Government Operations Committee
    • Hawaiian Affairs Committee
    • Higher Education Committee
    • Human Services Committee
    • Judiciary Committee
    • Labor, Culture and the Arts Committee
    • Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs Committee
    • Senate Education Committee
    • Senate Housing Committee
    • Senate Transportation Committee
    • Water and Land Committee
    • Ways and Means Committee

    House committees

    • Agriculture Committee
    • Committee on Labor and Government Operations
    • Consumer Protection & Commerce Committee
    • Corrections, Military, & Veterans Committee
    • Culture, Arts, & International Affairs Committee
    • Economic Development Committee
    • Energy & Environmental Protection Committee
    • Finance Committee
    • Government Reform Committee
    • Health, Human Services, & Homelessness Committee
    • Higher Education & Technology Committee
    • House Education Committee
    • House Housing Committee
    • House Transportation Committee
    • Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs Committee
    • Labor & Tourism Committee
    • Legislative Management Committee
    • Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Committee
    • Water, Land, & Hawaiian Affairs Committee

    Legislation

    Enacted legislstion

    The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2024 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation met these criteria in 2024. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

    Election administration legislation

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    State election laws are changing. Keeping track of the latest developments in all 50 states can seem like an impossible job. Here's the solution: Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker.

    Ballotpedia's Election Administration Tracker sets the industry standard for ease of use, flexibility, and raw power. Ballotpedia's election experts provide daily updates on bills and other relevant political developments, translate complex bill text into easy-to-understand summaries written in everyday language, and, because it's from Ballotpedia, our Tracker is guaranteed to be neutral, unbiased, and nonpartisan.

    The table below lists 2024 election-related legislation in Hawaii. The following information is included for each bill:

    • Bill number
    • Official name or caption
    • Most recent action date
    • Legislative status
    • Topics dealt with by the bill

    Bills are organized by bill number. The table displays up to 100 results by default. To view additional results, use the arrows in the upper-right corner of the table. For more information about a particular bill, simply click the bill number. This will open a separate page with additional information.

    Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

    In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

    The methods by which the Hawaii Constitution can be amended:

    See also: Article XVII of the Hawaii Constitution and Laws governing ballot measures in Hawaii

    The Hawaii Constitution provides two mechanisms for amending the state's constitution— a legislative process and a state constitutional convention. Hawaii requires a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) for voters to approve constitutional amendments.

    Legislature

    See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

    A two-thirds (66.67%) vote is required during one legislative session or a simple majority vote in two successive legislative sessions for the Hawaii State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 35 votes in the Hawaii House of Representatives and 17 votes in the Hawaii State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

    Convention

    See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

    According to Section 2 of Article XVII of the Hawaii Constitution, a question about whether to hold a state constitutional convention is to automatically appear on the state's ballot after a period of nine years. Hawaii is one of 14 states that provides for an automatic constitutional convention question.

    The table below shows the last and next constitutional convention question election years:

    State Interval Last question on the ballot Next question on the ballot
    Hawaii 10 years 2018 2028


    Historical partisan control

    The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Hawaii.

    Hawaii Party Control: 1992-2025
    Twenty-six years of Democratic trifectas  •  No Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
    Governor D D D D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D
    Senate D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D
    House D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D

    Historical Senate control

    Democrats won control of the Hawaii State Senate in 1962. In 2022, they won a 23-2 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Hawaii Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2022. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Hawaii State Senate election results: 1992-2022

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22
    Democrats 22 23 23 23 22 20 20 20 23 24 24 24 25 24 24 23
    Republicans 3 2 2 2 3 5 5 5 2 1 1 1 0 1 1 2

    Republicans controlled the Hawaii Senate from 1959 to 1962, the year Democrats gained control of the chamber.

    Historical House control

    Democrats have controlled the Hawaii House of Representatives since 1959, the year it achieved statehood. In 2022, they won a 45-6 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Hawaii House following every general election from 1992 to 2022. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Hawaii House of Representatives election results: 1992-2022

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22
    Democrats 47 44 39 39 32 36 41 43 45 43 44 43 45 46 47 45
    Republicans 4 7 12 12 19 15 10 8 6 8 7 8 6 5 4 6


    See also

    Elections Hawaii State Government State Legislatures State Politics
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    State Courts-Tile image.png

    External links

    Footnotes

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