Hawaii tackles government ethics in slate of bills passing initial muster

Aloha State lawmakers debated bills surrounding sports betting, legal rights for coral reefs and feral chickens, but an ongoing bribery investigation cast a shadow over the capitol.

by Jeremy Yurow, Court House News, February 20, 2026

HONOLULU (CN) — The Hawaii State Legislature’s 2026 session hit its first procedural milestone Friday, as a deadline passed that stalled, and likely stamped out, hundreds of bills.

The deadline, known as the First Lateral, fell at the close of business Friday. It requires all bills assigned to more than one committee to pass out of their first committee and advance to the next referral. Bills that did not receive a hearing or a vote by that cutoff are stalled for the year, barring rare procedural maneuvers by legislative leadership.

The session opened January 21 and runs through May 8.

Between now and then, a series of deadlines will continue to thin the field. First Crossover, when a bill must pass its originating chamber and move to the other, falls on March 12. The Second Lateral, requiring bills to clear their final committee in the non-originating chamber, falls on March 30. Final decking deadlines for non-fiscal and fiscal bills fall on April 29 and May 1.

Ethics and Governance

Senate Bill 2824, which would make it a misdemeanor to fail to report bribery, cleared its first committee ahead of Friday’s deadline.

The bill arrives amid an ongoing state attorney general’s investigation into an unidentified influential state legislator who, according to federal records, was recorded by an FBI operative accepting $35,000 in a paper bag in 2022.

The cash handoff was captured during an FBI sting involving former Representative Ty Cullen, who later pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges and cooperated with investigators. The identity of the legislator who received the money has never been publicly disclosed. The federal government determined it could not pursue a federal charge and handed the case to state prosecutors in January.

Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke acknowledged earlier this month that she may be connected to the investigation, though she denied taking cash in a paper bag. She said she returned approximately $35,000 in campaign contributions from associates connected to the scandal, money she said she received as legitimate checks. The investigation remains ongoing.

The overlap between the legislative calendar and the criminal inquiry has drawn much attention. Two House members, Representatives Della Au Belatti, a Makiki Democrat, and Kanani Souza, a Kapolei Republican, wrote to Green last month pressing for the investigation to be completed before the session ends in May, noting that the unidentified lawmaker could still hold office and potentially influence the legislation designed to address the conduct in question.

Attorney General Anne Lopez has not committed to a timeline.

Senate Bill 2661, which would extend anti-nepotism rules to the legislative and judicial branches, survived, but House Bill 2123, which would have extended the statute of limitations for public servant misconduct by up to 10 years, failed to make it past committee.

Gambling

Hawaii and Utah are the only two states that still prohibit all commercial gambling. On Friday, two bills taking opposing positions on wagering survived the deadline.

House Bill 2570 would legalize online-only sports betting, authorizing at least six online platforms to operate statewide, impose a 15% tax on adjusted gross revenue, and set licensing and annual renewal fees at $500,000. Retail sportsbooks would not be permitted.

Moving in the opposite direction, House Bill 2198 would prohibit so-called prediction markets, a fast-growing form of online wagering that allows users to bet on real-world events, from election outcomes to sports scores to commodity prices. The House Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee voted 11-0 in favor of the ban.

Education and public safety

Also making the cut were several education measures. House Bill 1779 would expand free school meals to all public and charter school students in Hawaii, regardless of whether a student qualifies for federal nutrition programs. House Bill 1559 would ban students from using phones and other telecommunication devices during the school day.

With President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda sweeping violently across the mainland, Hawaii’s response came in the form of Senate Bill 2203, which passed with amendments, would allow federal immigration agents to cover their faces while on duty, provided an unmasked officer remains within eyesight.

Senate Bill 2563 would allow homeless women and children to live on city, state, federal, or private land alongside their pets, addressing a gap that advocates say forces some families to choose between shelter and their animals.

But multiple bills targeting military live-fire training on public trust lands, including proposals for a constitutional amendment, did not survive. The legislation sought to phase out or ban such training on lands held in trust for the public and for Native Hawaiians.

Also surviving, however, was House Bill 2309, to lower the blood quantum threshold for nieces and nephews seeking to inherit Hawaiian Home Lands leases from 50% to 25% Native Hawaiian, bringing them in line with the standard already applied to spouses, children, and siblings. More than 29,000 Native Hawaiians wait for homestead leases, some for decades, and as families risk losing those leases entirely if no qualified successor exists.

Environment

Bills targeting environmental protections didn’t fare so well Friday: Senate Bill 2490 would have banned the manufacture, sale, and distribution of surfboard wax containing intentionally added PFAS, synthetic compounds known as forever chemicals linked to cancer and environmental contamination.

And Senate Bill 3323 would have granted Hawaii’s watersheds and coral reef ecosystems legal personhood, providing them with inherent and inalienable rights to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve, with citizen enforcement powers and civil penalties for violations. The concept, known as the rights of nature, has gained traction in some jurisdictions internationally but remains largely untested in the U.S.

Senate Bill 3148, introduced as part of Governor Josh Green’s administrative package, was among the most controversial that didn’t advance. The bill would have allowed private interests to restrict public access to Hawaii’s beaches and shorelines.

Hawaii’s ongoing feral chicken problem also won’t see much relief from lawmakers this year: House Bill 1852 and House Bill 980 would have removed feral chickens from wild bird protections, allowing residents to kill them on private property while prohibiting torture, but neither gained any traction.