Finding your State Representatives and contacting them

Are you "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore"?  Or maybe you would just like to propose a good idea but you don't know who to tell it to.  Finding who your state representatives are is really easy using the Hawaii State Legislature web site and entering your street name in the box at the top right hand corner.  Once you find them, you can:

• get their contact information to email, phone or send them a postcard,
• follow these simple instructions to submit testimony about bills before the legislature.
• find which bills have a hearing scheduled.
• discover the status of bills you are interested in.
• determine whether or not your representatives voted the way you wanted them to.

The State Legislature web site looks confusing at first, but after a few minutes you will be glad you signed on.  Representative Democracy only works when those being represented know what their representatives are doing.

Consider the bill you are contacting your state representatives about, you may also want to send an email to the Kauai County Council or just cc: them.

Submitting Testimony to the Hawaii Legislature

President Trump has surely made life hectic, even at the State Government Level.  The "Repeal and Replace" of the Affordable Care Act puts all of our health care options in serious jeopardy.  The Hawaii Healthcare Authority was established in 2009 to research how best to provide Healthcare to Hawaii, however, today in 2017, the State Legislature is considering defunding the Authority at a time that Hawaii needs it most.  There are several options for contacting your State Legislature, but one of the easiest is to do it through the Legislature's web site.  You can use the following instructions  to submit testimony for any bill before the Legislature.

1. Go to the Hawaii Legislature web site
2. Sign-in or create an account.  You will need to provide a real email address
3. Click on the "Submit Testimony" button in the middle of the page
4. Enter the Bill you want to testify for.  In this case type in "HB100"
5. Fill in the form with your position on the bill.

As an example, I submitted this for HB100.  

President Trump and the Republican Congress have promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It is a huge question whether or not they will actually replace it with something that will provide insurance for most Americans. In 2009, Hawaii established the Hawaii Health Authority to research how the state might provide a single-payer Healthcare for all. The state legislature is now considering whether or not to fund the HHA in the annual budget (HB100). If you get your health insurance from the health exchange, there is an excellent chance that you will not be able to buy any comprehensive or affordable health insurance in 2018. If you are on Medicare, there is an excellent chance your benefits will be cut and/or your premiums will go up. If you are on Medicaid you should have even more incentive to take action. When the Federal government fails us, the State of Hawaii must stand up.

Simple.  Even easier than calling your representative!