The Hawaiʻi Legislature is set to adjourn its 2026 session on Friday. Across two sessions, lawmakers introduced 5,309 bills. In 2025, 322 made it to the governor’s desk. By the time the gavel falls next week, over 200 more bills will likely survive the process and become law, leaving the vast majority of bills languishing in a committee.

Some of those failed measures were aimed at the cost of living and the economy. Others were on ethics, accountability and reform. Some were making their fourth or fifth appearance. Here’s a look at some of what didn’t make it.

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House Bill 2458 started as a real ban. Grocery retailers would have been prohibited from using customers’ purchase history, loyalty card data and location to charge different shoppers different prices for the same item. It passed four House committees and the full House floor. It died in the Senate after being amended down to a study. But it’s an issue that’s sure to come up again. Maryland became the first state to sign a ban into law last month.

A measure to tackle housing shortages, Senate Bill 1214, would have imposed a general excise tax surcharge on residential properties left vacant for more than 180 days a year, with the goal of pushing speculators to rent or sell empty homes. Revenue would have gone into a fund for rental assistance. France and cities including Vancouver, Washington, D.C., and Oakland have tried versions of this. Despite that track record, the bill didn’t receive a single hearing.

House Bill 2587 would have established when delivery drivers for platforms like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Amazon Flex qualify as employees rather than independent contractors, making them eligible for workers’ compensation, family leave and unemployment benefits. The fight over gig worker classification has been playing out across the country for years. California launched it with a 2019 law. Companies spent $220 million on a ballot measure to roll it back. Hawaiʻi’s version  stalled in the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee.

Economic protections and cost of living weren’t the only pressure points. A federal bribery investigation had already sent two former Hawaiʻi lawmakers to prison and shadowed the session from opening day. Yet a couple of the most promising accountability bills won’t become law.

Senate Bill 2737 would have made it a misdemeanor for any elected official who witnessed or learned of a bribe to fail to report it to prosecutors, law enforcement or the Ethics Commission within 60 days. The bill passed both chambers in different versions, but the House and Senate didn’t reconcile their versions in conference. A broader companion measure, Senate Bill 2824, which would have applied the same requirement to all people, not just elected officials, didn’t make it out of the Senate.

Under Senate Bill 2778, elected officials and department directors, along with their spouses and dependents, would have been required to place their financial investments in a blind trust for the duration of their time in office. It passed its first Senate committee, but never received a hearing in the second.

Public financing of elections, another way to tackle ethics and accountability, is not a new idea at the Hawaiʻi Legislature. But Senate Bill 2313, this year’s attempt to establish a comprehensive public financing system, didn’t fare much better than its predecessors. It passed unanimously in the Senate only to die without a hearing in the House. While a more modest version expanding the existing matching fund program did pass, a comprehensive overhaul remains out of reach.

And, it’s not the only issue to fail year after year.

Senate Bill 3275 would have legalized low-dose, low-potency cannabis for adult personal use. It was a notably cautious version of a bill that has come before the Legislature in some form for years. It passed two Senate committees in February before stalling in Ways and Means and Judiciary without a hearing. In 2025, a broader legalization measure failed in the House.

A bill to lower Hawaiʻi’s DUI blood-alcohol threshold from 0.08% to 0.05% failed to become law. Senate Bill 2463 passed the full Senate and the House Transportation Committee unanimously, yet didn’t receive a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. As Mothers Against Drunk Driving has pointed out, more than 108 countries have a lower limit than the United States. Utah is the only state to lower its limit to 0.05%, and a federal study confirmed that lowering the limit resulted in fewer traffic deaths. Yet, it failed here for a sixth consecutive year.

And, lastly, parking minimums have long been identified as a barrier to more affordable housing in Hawaiʻi. This session, two bills took aim at them. Senate Bill 2356 specifically targeted transit-oriented development zones. Senate Bill 2981 cast a wider net, covering new developments near transit hubs statewide. Both cleared the Senate before failing in the House. California, Oregon and New York City have all moved to eliminate parking minimums. Yet, despite our housing crisis, this idea has yet to gain enough traction.

As this session draws to a close, many important bills will have made it through, but just as many conversations will remain unfinished. When the next Legislature convenes in January, these unresolved issues will be back on the agenda. Only time will tell whether the gap between our ambitions and our results will narrow.