Tuesday is day 22 of the 60-day session (Tomorrow is a holiday).

A Ka'elepulu Elementary School teacher's drug bust on Wednesday has put heightened interest on a bill in the Senate that would mandate drug testing for public school teachers and librarians and has interesting implications for the drug testing of elected officials.

Although the bill has passed through both the Senate's Education and Judiciary and Labor committees and is headed to Ways and Means, it is unlikely to pass and may even be unconstitutional, given an individual's protection against unreasonable search and seizure, lawmakers said.

Some lawmakers say that they may introduce a new bill that would allow for drug testing for probable cause, but that may be unnecessary. Both the Department of Education and the Hawai'i State Teachers Association seem to agree that provisions for drug testing should be included in the contract that will go into effect in July. The contract is still being negotiated.

If Senate Bill 1139 does not pass, however, that could mean that proposals to randomly drug test elected officials will also fade away this session.

Senate Bill 211 would have required random drug testing for state and county elected officials, but senators chose to include elected officials in the teacher drug-testing bill. As a result, SB2 11 was deferred and missed an important procedural deadline on Friday.

Friday was First Lateral, the last day for any bills referred to multiple subject matter committees to advance to the final committee. This is important because bills that do not move are likely dead for the session.

Missing the cut was a controversial physician-assisted suicide bill (HB 675), which the House Health Committee held after hours of emotional testimony, rather than moving it on to the House Judiciary Committee.

The Senate version (SB 1995) did not get a hearing.

While House and Senate versions of civil union legislation to give same-sex couples the same rights as married couples are still alive, they are unlikely to be heard this session. Meanwhile, a bill that would have expanded the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund to cover unmarried couples regardless of gender was deferred in the House on Tuesday and not heard in the Senate.

Keep in mind that while bills may have died, the proposals could be resurrected later in the session.

OVERHEARD

"It doesn't single out teachers as somehow being the flavor of the month in terms of drug abuse."

— Sen. Clayton Hee, on why elected officials were inserted into Senate Bill 1139, which originally would have only required random drug testing for public school teachers and library personnel.

COMING UP