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Saturday’s nerve-wracking missile alert was top of mind as lawmakers opened the 2018 session of the Legislature Wednesday, with House and Senate leaders vowing to investigate what led to the false alarm, and to make sure the problem gets fixed.
House Speaker Scott Saiki said he suspects the false alarm of a ballistic missile attack that took 38 minutes to correct is a failure “probably at every level of government, including the federal and military levels, so once we have information, we’ll have to conduct oversight and ensure the administration makes the changes that need to be made.”
“We rely on the executive branch to competently and efficiently implement our laws and to administer programs,” Saiki said, referring to Gov. David Ige’s administration. “This begins with basic functions. Some of these functions must be carried out without mistakes because, when mistakes happen, the public loses confidence in all of us.”
The House Public Safety Committee and the Senate Government Operations and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs committees have scheduled a hearing at the state Capitol for 10 a.m. Friday to review the circumstances surrounding the incident and the delay in calling off the false alarm.
House and Senate lawmakers also cited housing, homelessness and education as priorities during this year’s 60-day session of the Legislature.
Senate President Ronald Kouchi urged his colleagues to support expansion of the Promise Program to provide tuition assistance for community college students, and the Early College program designed to help high school students earn college credits.
He described college as “a critical stepping stone to allow our children to find that pathway to success.”
The Capitol’s courtyard appeared busier than past opening day ceremonies, as groups ranging from young students to cultural practitioners joined the usual crowd of lobbyists and civic-minded citizens to mark the occasion.
A sea of about 500 students from Kamehameha Schools held hands in a large circle, filling the Capitol rotunda, and opened their day with a prayer, Hawaii Pono‘i, and a chant. Observers perched on higher floors leaned over the railings to watch the students singing in unison.
“The idea is that, why not start the legislative session by breaking bread together?” said Daniel Anthony, who organizes an annual opening day poi-pounding event. Students atop large wooden boards mashed cooked taro and breadfruit into poi using traditional stone pounders. Anthony said the event is focused on youth and children to provide a civic experience and introduce them to the political scene. “We might not change politics tomorrow, but I guarantee it, we changed it for the future,” Anthony said.
The Capitol also was overflowing with participants of the march and ceremony in commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom — ‘Onipa‘a Kakou.
Also at the Capitol were booths offering information on various programs, such as Mokulua, a sustainable home-building organization; the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement; and Ho‘omanapono, which encourages Native Hawaiians to register to vote.
“2018 is gonna be a very powerful year for us. Our voice will be heard,” said DeMont Conner, a prison activist and former inmate who is now president and chairman of Ho‘omanapono. “Either you’re gonna hear us in the 2018 legislative session, or you’re gonna feel us in the voting booth in November.”
Kouchi told his colleagues and onlookers that the Senate will continue working with the Ige administration to improve the state’s emergency warning system.
“We are committed to make sure that this never happens again,” he said of the false alarm on Saturday. “We will continue to work with the administration to find out what we need to do for best practices and how we can carry out our responsibility to ensure that each and every citizen and guest of this state is going to be safe.”
He told reporters afterward that the Senate would seriously consider any funding requests to make good on that promise.
Senate Majority Leader J. Kalani English added that he and his colleagues want to make the warning system “better and make it fool-proof.”
In remarks to the media after the House and Senate opened their sessions, Gov. David Ige said his administration already has implemented changes to prevent similar false alarms in the future. Ige has appointed Brig. Gen. Kenneth Hara to head an independent assessment of the missile alert system and implement any changes that may be needed.
“I do think that one of the lessons learned is that we all need to understand better what the appropriate response should be,” Ige said. “We intend to engage our entire community — business, nonprofits, individuals in our community to be prepared, to know what they should be doing, what action needs to be taken in order to keep themselves and their families safe.”
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>> For the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s full coverage of Hawaii’s missile alert scare, go to 808ne.ws/Hawaiimissilescare.
Star-Advertiser reporter Tyne Phillips contributed to this report.
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