May 4 was the final day of the 2023 legislative session. We have been tracking the proposals from the House Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct as well as dozens of other “sunshine” bills, most of them — but not all — intended to restore public trust in government.

Bill numbers and companion measures, titles and descriptions, the final status of the bills and the primary committee chair referrals and contacts are provided below.

This page is broken into three sections: the measures that came from the so-called Foley commission, the blue-ribbon panel of experts led by retired Judge Dan Foley; dozens of other bills coming from lawmakers and agencies such as the Hawaii State Ethics Commission and the Campaign Spending Commission; and the bills that are in all likelihood dead — “deferred” or otherwise — for the 2023 session.

Of note: Once the governor acts on the sunshine bills still before him, this tracker will be updated accordingly. And because it is the first year of a biennial session, in theory any bills that died carry over into the 2024 session that begins in January. Legislative leaders said they would review some of the legislation during the interim to consider what should be taken up next year in terms of sunshine.

Use the “Details” tab that opens a new page with additional information, including key lawmakers to contact about the bill, and links to the Legislature’s website. Updates to all bills are made on a regular basis.

If you see any bill that you think should be included in this list — or anything else we can be shining a light on — please email us at sunshine@civilbeat.org.

There were 31 legislative proposals and two resolutions recommended by the Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct. According to a report from the Legislature, 20 of them “were addressed fully by Legislature and two were partially addressed. Of the 11 that were not addressed by the Legislature, six were passed by both the House and Senate but died in conference, one was not approved by the House, two can be implemented at the discretion of committee chairs, one was addressed through changes to the House Rules, and one was determined to be the responsibility of the counties.”

Below is the status of the remaining Foley commission bills that were addressed during the last weeks of session:

Here’s the status of other sunshine bills proposed for the 2023 legislative session:

And here’s the graveyard of bills that are dead for this year barring an unexpected revival: