The Senate Committee on Ways and Means pressed the administration on transparency around a large global settlement and voted to adopt amendments suggested by the Attorney General that remove language from pages 7, lines 3–17 of the bill.

Committee members and representatives from the governor's office debated whether legislative members had been included or kept informed during settlement negotiations. Will King, representing the governor's office, told the committee: "My understanding, and again, I would defer to the AG for the actual legal, verbiage, but essentially any legal agreement has to be either put forward as, accepted or or not. So any amendments to this would cause the legal agreement, in our view to be, dismissed." He added he would "definitely convey those concerns, chair." The committee recorded concerns about the negotiation process and requested a response from the Attorney General.

Several senators expressed frustration that they and other legislators were not consulted while negotiations proceeded. One senator said the process "almost puts the legislature in a bind" because the committee was being asked to approve a settlement without the ability to amend its terms. Committee members also asked how Hawaii Electric Company (HECO) would fund its portion of a multi-billion-dollar judgment; a senator noted the record shows the state proposed contributing $800,000,000 but said committee members did not have information about how the remaining $1 billion would be covered.

After discussion, the chair moved to reconsider the committee's previous action and to pass the measure with amendments adopting the Attorney General's suggested language changes to remove the specified passage on page 7. The motion passed on recorded voice and roll-call confirmations. The clerk recorded the usual sequence of "Chair votes aye," "Vice chair votes aye," and individual senators announcing "Aye;" the recommendation was adopted.

Ending: Committee members asked the Attorney General to provide follow-up legal details in writing and asked the administration to explain how HECO would meet any payment obligations; staff indicated the committee would request that information.