Each year, I hire someone to assist me and my staff with the heavy workload during the legislative session, which runs from January into the first week of May. This is a temporary, full time position in the Capitol, and the pay is not bad. The legislative session is a blur of activity in which thousands of bills are introduced and processed in a very short time. Each bill is referred to the appropriate subject matter committees and the committee chair determines if the meas

Every two years, the Senate Ways and Means Committee (WAM) visits state facilities and priority projects around the state. Ways and Means is the committee that considers every bill relating to government spending that passes through the Senate. These bi-annual field trips allow committee members to meet with neighbor island agencies and community leaders to better understand the diverse needs throughout the state. On Maui, we visited various schools, the Maui Community Corr