A public briefing called by leading House lawmakers to delve into why the Department of Education plans to give up funding for more than 150 public school construction projects was abruptly canceled Wednesday.

House Speaker Scott Saiki circulated a memo to lawmakers on Nov. 29 informing them the state Department of Education plans to lapse more than $465 million that the Legislature appropriated for school projects across the state.

The decision to lapse the funds was hotly criticized by some. If money for those projects lapses, that means the funding appropriated by the Legislature for those projects has expired. Lawmakers would then have to re-appropriate funding for each one in order for the projects to proceed.

That means the school construction projects would be delayed, or possibly even canceled. Saiki described the lapsing of hundreds of millions of dollars in school construction funding as “a big problem,” and said he did not understand why it is happening.

The House Finance and Education Committees announced Monday they would hold a public briefing later this week to hear from leaders in the DOE and the state Department of Budget and Finance about the reasons behind lapsing the projects.

But on Wednesday afternoon the House abruptly issued new notice canceling the public briefing.

When asked why the briefing was called off, Saiki said in a written statement that “the DOE leadership is well aware of legislators’ concerns and are working with us to identify and fix the barriers that cause prolonged delay.”

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.