EVA ANDRADE

Heads up. We’re knee-deep in fast moving bills

The legislative session has only been open for four weeks, and we are already knee-deep in fast moving bills. Here’s what we are tracking.

Civil unions

The bill that would legalize same-sex marriage under another name, civil unions, unanimously passed the house judiciary committee 12 to 0. (Four members were “excused,” which means they were not present to vote.) At the house judiciary hearing, several key supporters of the bill publicly stated that the establishment of civil unions is only a stepping stone toward full marriage recognition. Across the nation, states that have legalized civil unions are already battling same-sex marriage in their legislatures. If civil unions pass in Hawaii, within a few years we will find ourselves back at the capitol in a 1997 déj-vu moment fighting same-sex marriage again.

The bill also passed the House by an overwhelming 33 to 17. It has already crossed over to the Senate where we expect that it will receive only a single referral to the senate judiciary committee. It’s fate there is uncertain. People on both sides of the issue believe the vote is split 50/50 with Senator Robert Bunda as a potential swing vote. We are encouraging people to contact Senator Bunda and ask him to vote against civil unions. Keep in mind, however, that even if the bill is killed in the senate judiciary, senate president Colleen Hanabusa could pull the bill out of the committee and force a floor vote.

Physician-assisted suicide

HB 587 and HB 805, the physician-assisted suicide bills, are on a fast track for passage in the House. They were originally scheduled to go to the health committee and then move to the Judiciary committee. Unfortunately, house leadership re-referred the bills ONLY to the house judiciary completely bypassing the health committee. At this time no hearing has been set, but we expect that the hearing notice will come very soon. We will let you know when it is time to take action.

Emergency contraceptives

The bill (HB 423) that would force Hawaii Medical Centers to administer the “morning-after pill” thankfully passed the health committee with a religious exemption. We were very pleased by the decision. The bill moved to the house judiciary and was heard on Feb. 13 where a decision was postponed. The fate of the bill in judiciary will be determined by the time you read this update. We will strongly oppose the bill if the religious exemption is removed from the bill. We will keep you posted.

Medically accurate sex education, “Try Wait” Program

We are very disappointed to report that members of both house health and house education committees have passed HB 329 and HB 330 out of committee. These bills require the state to reject all Title V funding for programs mandated to teach abstinence until marriage and provide medically accurate sexuality education. These bills are driven by groups who believe that abstinence education does not work and that anyone who teaches abstinence-only is misguided or downright wrong.

It is interesting to note that even the State Department of Health testified that “[t]his bill is not necessary because abstinence-only audiences have access to State-funded programs and resources such as family planning and other teen pregnancy prevention counseling that do provide comprehensive contraceptive information.” That is what we have been saying all along. Both bills now move to the house finance committee.

Affordable housing

We have testified, along with Catholic Charities Hawaii, on several bills relating to housing. (Visit our website at www.hawaiifamilyforum.org to see them.) One of the bills, HB 749, reestablishes a 50 percent allocation of the conveyance tax to the rental housing trust fund until June 30, 2013.

The bill also makes appropriation to assist developers in contracting for third party review and certification to expedite the processing and issuance of building permits for affordable housing projects. The need for affordable housing is crucial during these times of economic stress. The bill has passed the house housing committee and is moving to house finance committee.

Visit www.hawaiifamilyfor- um.org to read the testimony submitted by the Hawaii Catholic Conference/Hawaii Family Forum on issues we are tracking during the legislative session.