The Joint House and Senate Conference Committee met Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Conference Room 016 and postponed final action on a slate of bills so conferees could complete conference drafts and obtain a FinWAM release and related approvals.

Committee leaders said most measures had agreement on conference-draft language (a CD) but were being held for FinWAM review or technical cleanups. The committee scheduled reconvening dates — variously April 23 and April 24 in Conference Room 016 at 10:00–10:15 a.m. depending on the bill — to finalize those items.

Why it matters: The rollovers affect timelines for bills on public employment costs, collective bargaining, workers’ compensation, government operations, data sharing, retirement savings and wage law; one measure includes a specific budget insertion and reporting deadlines that could affect fiscal planning for the coming year.

Most measures on the agenda were described briefly by conferees as having either a CD in progress or agreement on language pending FinWAM release. House and Senate conferees repeatedly said they would reconvene the next day to complete work once FinWAM had cleared the drafts.

A summary of the bills discussed and their immediate status, as stated in the meeting: 1) HB 1031 HD 1 SD 1 (public employment cost items) — conferees reported agreement on a CD and said they were awaiting FinWAM release; rolled over to April 23 in Conference Room 016. 2) HB 1033 HD 1 SD 1 (public employment cost items) — same status: agreement on CD, awaiting FinWAM; rolled over to April 23 at 10:01 a.m. 3) HB 1162 HD 2 SD 1 (collective bargaining) — conferees reported agreement on language but awaited FinWAM release; rolled over to April 23 at 10:01 a.m. 4) HB 480 HD 1 SD 1 (workers’ compensation) — conferees reported a CD and were awaiting FinWAM release; rolled over to April 23 at 10:01 a.m. 5) HB 214 HD 1 SD 2 (government) — agreement reported; rolled over to April 23 at 10:01 a.m.

On several senate-origin bills the committee reported parallel status updates: 6) SB 828 (workers’ compensation medical benefits) — conferees said they were preparing a CD with a clean date and technical amendments; reconvened April 23 at 10:15 a.m. 7) SB 1491 SD1 (departmental data sharing) — conferees said they would adopt the House language for a specific text span (house language from page 2, line 18 through page 3, line 6) plus technical amendments and a clean date; reconvened April 23 at 10:15 a.m. 8) SB 1567 (classification and compensation systems) — conferees reported a CD with a clean date of July 1, funding inserted into the budget in the amount of $1,750,000 and statutory report dates; the bill’s required review is to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2026. The committee said it would reconvene April 23 at 10:15 a.m. to complete the release. 9) SB 1454 SD1 HD2 (wage law) — conferees reported a CD in progress using the Senate draft with a clean date “upon approval”; reconvene April 23 at 10:15 a.m.

Additional items: 10) SB 855 SD (Hawaii Retirement Savings Act) — conferees said they had a CD and that the money for the measure was included in the budget passed the prior evening; they awaited final approvals and planned to reconvene April 23 at 10:15 a.m. 11) SB 717 SD1 HD1 (collective bargaining) — conferees reported a CD ready and said it would be sent to FinWAM for approval; reconvened April 23 at 10:15 a.m. 12) SB 742 (data sharing) — conferees said the CD would pick up Senate language, include a clean date of July 1, 2025, and incorporate additional provisions requested by the CIO, notably resources and positions to staff a working group; reconvened April 23 at 10:15 a.m.

No formal votes or final actions were taken during the April 22 meeting. Committee leaders explicitly characterized the session as procedural: confirming conferees, reporting whether CDs were agreed in principle, and scheduling reconvening times once FinWAM release or technical cleanup was complete.

Meeting notes and clarifications offered by conferees included the following: the $1,750,000 cited for SB 1567 was described as funding “inserted into the budget” and associated report dates were placed in the bill text; officials said the SB 855 measure’s funding was inside the budget passed the night before; the SB 1491 data-sharing agreement referenced specific house-language line spans for incorporation into the CD; the SB 742 data-sharing measure explicitly added provisions requested by the Chief Information Officer for resources and positions.

The committee adjourned each agenda segment after setting reconvene dates and times; the April 22 session concluded with the committee saying it would reconvene on April 23 in Conference Room 016 to finalize the outstanding conference-draft releases and related approvals.