Committee chairs and legislative veterans have the best track record, a review of the data shows. But even they only get a fraction of what they introduce through.

Only about 10% of all bills introduced during a Hawaiʻi session will pass and become law. The 2025 session was no exception — 3,172 bills were introduced in the House and Senate and only 313 became law.

Still, lawmakers are lucky if 10% of their own bills make the cut. A Civil Beat analysis of the 2025 session shows that just one-third of lawmakers had at least 10% of their bills approved.

“The real question is why so many bills get introduced in the first place,” Colin Moore, a political science professor at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, told Civil Beat in an email. “Legislators usually have a few core priorities, but mos

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