Update from the House Minority Leader--Week 6

From Office of Rep Beth Fukumoto Chang, February 12, 2016

Triple Referral Deadline

This Thursday (February 11th) marked the first Triple Referral Deadline of the Legislative Session.

All bills with three or more committee referrals must have passed through their first committee by the end of the day in order to continue through the legislative process.

If you would like more information regarding the legislative process, read part 1 of 4 in our series of "How a Bill Becomes a Law" here.

Mike Buck

Every Monday at 7 a.m., I talk story with Mike Buck on AM690.  My chats with Mike are a great way to discuss what's happened in the Legislature the previous week and what the public can expect in the coming week.

Last week, one of the key issues we discussed was improving Hawaii's mental health care system.

"I think the homeless crisis has really forced the legislature to start looking at mental health. The mental health system has been something that, since I got elected, I've been interested in trying to fix. We have a very big problem at our state hospital. We're bleeding money, and we're not fixing anybody. We end up putting people who are either involuntarily committed because they couldn't stand trial, or they went to trial and were found insane, or something like that, and they get stuck in this system and we can't get them either back out because we can't fix them, or we let them out too soon and we have to send them right back."

This week, I'll be on The Mike Buck Show on Tuesday (Feb 16) at 7 a.m. as Monday is President's Day.

Mental Health Fact Sheet

Click here to read about the various mental health bills currently making their way through the Legislature.

Link >>> Mental Health Bills