Senate and House leaders are weighing details of a special session amid talk of a possible recession. We spoke with Senate President Ron Kouchi and House Speaker Nadine Nakamura on Friday as the latest UHERO economic forecast was released.
Nakamura said it's not surprising that a mild recession seems inevitable.
"Because of the federal policies cutting funding, it's impacting our employment base for federal employees," she said. "It's cutting resources to critical programs without any regard to the impacts on our environment, on our community, on our travel to Hawaiʻi, tariffs that are going to impact the cost of living in Hawaiʻi, all of these things, it's because of federal leadership that at the executive and congressional level that is not looking out for the residents of our country and the state of Hawaiʻi."
Kouchi said that the special session timeframe will all be driven by what Washington does.
"We're really not in control of the timeline," Kouchi said. "Once the action or inaction occurs, then we would need to take the assessment and determine what would be necessary."
Nakamura added that lawmakers are looking at dates at the end of August, September, and the week before Thanksgiving, as three possible five-day blocks to set aside if they would need to return to a special session.
"At this point, the priority will be the budget. It is a limited time. It requires members to be on the same page, because there's not any room in the five-day block for amendments," Nakamura explained.
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 12, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
