{"id":35800,"date":"2022-09-18T10:22:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-18T10:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=35800"},"modified":"2022-09-18T10:22:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-18T10:22:26","slug":"chad-blair-theres-value-in-legislative-task-forces-and-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/18\/chad-blair-theres-value-in-legislative-task-forces-and-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Chad Blair: There\u2019s Value In Legislative Task Forces And Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Even though the Hawaii Legislature formally meets for just a few months of the year, its work continues during the interim. It includes multiple requests to government agencies and officials, some of them binding, some just suggestions.<\/p>\n

\"Opinion

The requests from the 2022 session<\/a> were posted online this summer, and it\u2019s a snapshot of the work of legislators that may not garner headlines and yet is often consequential. The enactment of important laws often follows.<\/p>\n

But it also illustrates that what comes out of a legislative session can appear to outsiders as bureaucratic and Byzantine and avoiding responsibility. Let me explain.<\/p>\n

During this past session, Rep. Nicole Lowen from the Big Island pushed a bill to increase the percentage requirement of Kona coffee blends from 10% to 51%.<\/p>\n

As Lowen wrote in a Community Voice<\/a> on House Bill 1517<\/a>, \u201cThe deception is the point: to use the name Kona or Kau or Hawaii on coffee that is 90% not that, and then to sell it for more by exploiting the good reputation of real Hawaii coffee to increase the amount of money that blenders can make on imported coffee beans by passing them off as a boutique local product.\u201d<\/p>\n

By end of session, however, HB 1517 was watered down to call for the state Department of Agriculture to study the issue and report back to the Legislature in January 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Soil