LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Supporting bills that protect vulnerable citizens

It’s been a very busy 2005 legislative session. In addition to taking a lead role on the issues of physician assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and religious freedom rights for St. Francis healthcare systems, the Hawaii Catholic Conference has testified on numerous other issues of social justice.

The Hawaii Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Diocese of Honolulu, and Hawaii Family Forum, a non-denominational pro-family educational organization, have been the most visible proponents of HB 540 HD1, a bill to protect newborns babies. The proposed legislation would give immunity to mothers who leave their unharmed newborns at a hospital or other designated safe haven. Passage of this bill would bring Hawaii into conformance with most other states. The purpose of HB 540 HD1 is to save the lives of babies who might otherwise end up dead.

Hawaii Catholic Conference and Hawaii Family Forum have also submitted testimony in support of HB 433 HD1, a bill that will result in the better protection of domestic violence victims by closing a loophole in current retraining order law.

The conference also submitted testimony supporting Catholic Charities Hawaii in its efforts to secure full funding from the legislature for centers that serve senior citizens. The bill, SB 1202, would have appropriated emergency budget and reserve funding for Catholic Charities’ Lanakila Multi-Purpose Senior Center, the Moiliili Community Center, and the Waikiki Community Center. The legislation unfortunately was deferred by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The most contentious and important issue now facing the legislature is whether it will fix Hawaii’s broken Megan’s law now that it has the power to do so. Originally passed in 1997, Megan’s law allowed information about registered sex offenders to be made public on the Internet. The purpose of the law was to protect Hawaii’s children by allowing their parents to learn if a convicted sex offender was living in their neighbor.

Until a 2001 Hawaii Supreme Court decision prevented it, information about nearly all of Hawaii’s 2,100 sex offenders was available to parents a the click of a computer button. As a result, there is information regarding only 66 sex offenders available online at the state attorney general’s website.

In last November’s election, more than 70 percent of voters chose to amend the Hawaii Constitution to give the legislature the authority to put the law back the way it was originally intended to best protect Hawaii’s keiki.

But here’s the key: the legislature now must re-enact the original statute to fully protect the public. Bills supported by the state attorney general and the Honolulu prosecutor do just that. But proposals supported by Office of the Public Defender and the ACLU are trying to weaken the original provisions of Megan’s law.

Here’s where one minute of your time can help protect a child from a sex offender. Please contact your senator and representative and ask them to support the “attorney general’s version of Megan’s law.” (The bill numbers have changed so often, this is the most straightforward way to make your point.) As always, please do it with charity and clarity.

If you don’t know who your legislators are, log on to the Hawaii Family Forum website at www.hawaiifamilyforum.org. If you need more information about Megan’s law, visit the Office of the Attorney General at: www.state.hi.us/ag/ or call them at (808) 586-1239.

Attorney Kelly Rosati is the government relations representative for the Hawaii Catholic Conference and Hawaii Family Forum.