From the third Wednesday of January through the last week of April, many hours were spent at the Capitol ensuring that the "Voice of Business" was represented. The Chamber testified at hearings, met with the lawmakers on a regular basis, sent Action Alerts, spoke to various business and community organizations, and collaborated with other organizations.

The Chamber tracked more than 140 bills out of the 2,000+ introduced. A BIG mahalo for your support this past session, especially those that continually responded to the Action Alerts on the unemployment insurance bill. Your input and participation in the Chamber's advocacy efforts were the driving force behind the outcome of the UI bill.

Through active and strong advocacy efforts, the Chamber accomplished its agenda. The Chamber's 2010 Legislative Agenda consisted of top three issues, which were:
1. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE: Support unemployment insurance tax legislation that would mitigate the impacts of the tax increase.
2. EIS: Support balanced and fair legislation that will remove the uncertainty and provide clarity to the environmental impact statement process, as well as opposing a wholesale revision of Chamber 343.
3. GET: Oppose a GET increase.

            UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
After intense advocacy efforts which included meeting with House and Senate leadership and committee chairs on a regular basis as well as most legislators, a bill that included the Chamber’s language was fast-tracked to the Governor.  The bill passed the Legislature in early March and was signed by the Governor. HB 2169 HD2 became Act 2.
The Chamber mobilized more than 25 business organizations as well as 100+ members to respond to Action Alerts on this issue. Our efforts were strengthened due to the strong support from these entities including the neighbor island chambers. Thank you for your support. A special mahalo to the Chamber's Board of Directors chair, John Knorek, who also serves as our HR Committee chair. His expertise, time and input were invaluable to our efforts.  

ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION
The Chamber’s #2 priority was to support balanced and fair legislation that would remove the uncertainty and provide clarity to the environmental review process. This included opposing a wholesale revision of Chapter 343, the Environmental Impact Statement statute. 
SB 2818 was introduced as a result of the UH Environmental Center’s study which recommended major changes to the statute.  This study contained onerous provisions that the Chamber could not support because of the impact it would have on economic revitalization and job creation. The bill was deferred by the House Finance Committee.  

GET INCREASE
Although some efforts were made to increase the GET, the Legislature and specifically the Finance Committee and Ways and Means Committee did not consider increasing the GET to help balance the budget. 

WORKPLACE REGULATION
This session, the Chamber was able to deter some bills that would have imposed mandates on employers from passing this session.
The following are some highlights:
• Defeated legislation (SB 62, a carryover bill from 2009) that would have required employers and employees to mutually agree on an independent medical and permanent impairment rating examination physician in workers’ compensation cases. The Chamber opposed this measure because it would have increased work comp costs as well as remove an essential part of the employer’s discovery process to ensure proper treatment. 
• Defeated legislation (HB 1687, a carryover bill from 2009) that would have required employers to provide sick leave to employees regardless of size of company.
• Defeated legislation (HB 2473) that would have made abusive conduct against an employee by another employee in the workplace a violation of occupational safety and health law.  Employers would have been vicariously liable for the abusive conduct of an employee. This measure is also known as the “anti-bullying” bill.
• Defeated legislation (HB 2258) that would have created a family leave insurance fund and require both employers and employees covered under HFLA to contribute to the fund.
• Defeated legislation (SB 2244) that would have increased the minimum hourly wage.