Major bills impacting interisland shipping, immigration enforcement and more have made it to the governor’s desk in the final days of the 2026 legislative session.
The Senate and House finally closed out the legislative session Friday by voting dozens more bills through final reading hours before the final deadline.
Joining the more than 100 measures already awaiting Gov. Josh Green’s decision are:
No pay, no permit
Senate Bill 2140 allows the counties to revoke or deny a building permit application if a contractor involved in that permit is found to have violated labor laws.
Any contractor found to have violated state laws relating to wages, benefits, work hours or employment status can have their permits pulled, under the bill. Contractors are therefore required to disclose information regarding employee wages, benefits, hours and employment status to the county.
Upon pulling a permit, the county must then inform the property owner within five business days and offer the owner a chance to select a replacement contractor, and process the replacement contractor’s application within another five business days.
The measure received significant support from unions — in particular the Pacific Resource Partnership, a partnership between the Hawai‘i Regional Council of Carpenters and hundreds of other contractors — which praised the measure’s potential to prevent bad actors from undercutting local labor.
The Carpenters Union referenced a contentious construction project in Waikīkī: the renovation of the former Maile Sky Court, a $25 million project that was plagued with labor violations such as unpaid back wages and overtime and failing to provide prepaid health care to employees.
“Similar situations occur across the state, and when violations are allowed to continue, it sends a message that cutting corners is tolerated while law abiding contractors are put at a disadvantage,” read a letter by the Carpenters Union.
However, the bill also drew some opposition, significantly from the Maui Chamber of Commerce, which found the bill redundant to existing laws and worried that it will take even longer than it already does to get permits granted.
Only four lawmakers voted against the measure Wednesday: Representatives Elle Cochran, Joe Gedeon, Elijah Pierick and Garner Shimizu, all Republicans, voted against it.
The measure will take effect immediately should Green sign it.
Rate increases for Young Brothers OK’d
Interisland shippers — which effectively means Young Brothers LLC — would have automatic cost adjustments applied by the Public Utilities Commission annually under Senate Bill 2694.
While Young Brothers currently requires PUC approval for any rate changes, SB 2694 streamlines the process, allowing the PUC to develop a “water carrier inflationary cost index automatic adjustment mechanism” to be applied to transport companies’ fees.
While the automatic adjustments would be limited to no more than 5% each year, they would be applied almost every year from this July through 2033.
Several major organizations — including multiple county chambers of commerce, the Maui Brewing Co., ABC Stores, and the Hawai‘i Farm Bureau — have opposed the measure on the grounds that it cuts out a public process for applying additional transportation fees that impact residents throughout the state.
Furthermore, the PUC had already granted a 25.75% rate increase for Young Brothers that took effect in January.
Fifteen representatives voted against the bill Wednesday, including Diamond Garcia, Sue Keohokapu-Lee Loy, Nicole Lowen, Cochran, Gedeon, Pierick and Shimizu. No senators voted against it.
If signed by Green, the first automatic cost adjustment would be imposed July 1.
Some anti-ICE bills survived, many didn’t
After a session full of various proposals to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Activity in the state, three have made it to the end.
The first, and most significant, is Senate Bill 2057, which prohibits law enforcement agencies in the state from entering into an agreement that allows state or county law enforcement to assist in immigration enforcement.
Local officers would be prohibited from inquiring about a person’s citizenship, providing a person’s citizenship information to federal immigration authorities, allowing ICE to interview individuals while in police custody, and more. There are exceptions — cops could ask about a person’s immigration status during a criminal investigation, ICE could interview a person in custody if the person consents or if permitted by a court order — but the measure largely delineates immigration inquiries as outside the duties of local law enforcement.
House Bill 1839, meanwhile, requires state and county police agencies to inform people in their custody of their rights before any interview with ICE and requires all records of such an interview be maintained as public records.
And HB 1870 requires state and county agencies to establish policies concerning “protected community locations” where immigration enforcement is not authorized. Under the bill, by next year, all agencies that operate such locations must have developed policies identifying those locations, establishing procedures for how police warrants are verified, and training staff for how to assist people in those locations.
All three bills received votes in opposition largely from each chamber’s Republican contingent, including representatives Garcia, Lauren Matsumoto, Chris Muraoka and David Alcos, and senators Brenton Awa, Kurt Fevella and Samantha DeCorte. However, House Democrat Sam Kong also voted against all three measures.
HB 1870 would take effect Jan. 1, 2027, if signed by Green. The other two would take effect immediately.
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