Authorizing And Empowering The Speaker To Perform And Carry Out Any Official Legislative Business During The Interim Between The 2025 And 2026 Regular Sessions.
H.R. 217 is a House Resolution that gives the Speaker of the Hawaii House of Representatives authority to carry out official legislative business during the interim between the 2025 and 2026 regular sessions. The resolution is procedural and administrative in nature; it does not create new public programs or change substantive policy. Instead, it authorizes the Speaker to use previously appropriated legislative funds, hire or assign staff, and manage after-session work needed to complete the business of the Thirty-third Legislature.
The resolution also empowers the Speaker to oversee standing, interim, select, investigative, and special committees during the interim period. That authority includes calling meetings and hearings, determining committee membership and duties, issuing subpoenas as allowed by law or House rules, approving committee expenditures, and requiring periodic reports to the Speaker and a final report to the Legislature after the 2026 session convenes. It further authorizes the Speaker to approve House journals for legislative days compiled by the 60th session day, and the authority extends through January 21, 2026, in addition to any other powers already granted.
H.R. 217 affects internal House operations rather than the Hawaii Revised Statutes. It expands and clarifies the Speaker’s interim administrative authority over staffing, spending, committee activity, subpoenas, and journal approval for the period between sessions. The resolution primarily impacts House officers, employees, committee members, and any individuals or entities involved in interim committee hearings or investigations, while leaving substantive state law unchanged.
The available record suggests the resolution is routine and likely noncontroversial, as there are no committee transcripts, recorded votes, or noted opposition in the provided materials. Measures of this kind are typically treated as housekeeping resolutions that ensure the House can continue its work between regular sessions. The absence of debate or voting history indicates general procedural support or at least no documented dissent in the materials provided.
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided record. If any concerns were raised, they would most likely relate to the breadth of authority given to the Speaker—especially control over committee membership, interim hearings, subpoenas, and expenditures—but no speaker, member, or stakeholder objections are included here. Because the bill is an internal legislative authorization, any disagreement would center on institutional oversight and separation of authority within the House rather than on public policy.