STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1432

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2021

 

RE:   S.B. No. 404

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Government Reform, to which was referred S.B. No. 404 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONEERING COMMUNICATIONS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to amend the requirements for a statement of information filed by each person who makes an expenditure for electioneering communications by:

 

     (1)  Increasing the monetary threshold that triggers disclosure of electioneering communications;

 

     (2)  Requiring that disclosures of electioneering communications occur on the date the electioneering communications are publicly distributed;

 

     (3)  Classifying election advertisements sent by mail at any postal rate as electioneering communications;

 

     (4)  Deleting items that constitute expenditures by an expending organization from the types of communications excluded from the definition of electioneering communications; and

 

     (5)  Repealing the requirement that a person be treated as having made an expenditure if the person has executed a contract to make the expenditure.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Campaign Spending Commission, League of Women Voters of Hawaii, and Common Cause Hawaii.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from two individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that amending the disclosure date of electioneering communications to occur on the date the electioneering communications are publicly distributed is timelier, as contracts for these advertisements may occur weeks or months before the electioneering communications are publicly distributed.  Your Committee further finds that increasing the monetary threshold amount that would require disclosure of an electioneering communication will reduce the burden on smaller candidate committees that generally engage in less advertising.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the monetary threshold that triggers disclosure of electioneering communications to an unspecified amount;

 

     (2)  Restoring existing statutory language that exempts expenditures by an expending organization from being classified as an electioneering communication;

 

     (3)  Clarifying that actual expenditures by an expending organization are exempted from being classified as an electioneering communication; and

 

     (4)  Changing its effective date to July 1, 2112, to encourage further discussion.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure to statutorily restore paragraph (2) under the definition of "electioneering communication" as it was applied in H.B. No. 144, H.D. 1 (Regular Session of 2021), the companion to this measure that was previously passed by your Committee.  However, since the passage of H.B. No. 144, H.D. 1 out of your Committee, your Committee agrees with concerns that restoring this language exactly as it currently exists in statute will leave a large loophole in the law.  Your Committee has further amended this measure to clarify that actual expenditures by an expending organization are exempted from being classified as an electioneering communication, which your Committee believes will close this loophole.

 

     Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider the monetary threshold of $5,000 that would trigger the disclosure of electioneering communications and the origin of this arbitrary amount.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Government Reform that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 404, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 404, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

 

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Government Reform,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

ANGUS L.K. McKELVEY, Chair