Hawaii State Legislature | |
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Type | |
Type | |
Houses |
Senate House |
History | |
New session started
|
January 21, 2015 |
Leadership | |
Structure | |
Seats |
76 total 25 senators 51 representatives |
Political groups
|
|
Political groups
|
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Elections | |
Last election
|
November 8, 2016 |
Next election
|
November 6, 2018 |
Meeting place | |
Hawaii State Capitol Honolulu, Hawaii |
|
Website | |
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/ |
The Hawaii State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state legislature is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Hawaii State House of Representatives, with 51 representatives, and an upper house, the 25-member Hawaii State Senate. There are a total of 76 representatives in the legislature, each representing single member districts across the islands. The powers of the legislature are granted under Article III of the Constitution of Hawaii. The legislature convenes at the Hawaii State Capitol building in the state capital of Honolulu, on the island of Oahu.
The legislature is a descendant of the two houses of the parliament for the Kingdom of Hawaii, the Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom, created in the 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom and continued in the subsequent 1852 Constitution as the Legislature of the Hawaiian Islands, consisting of the House of Representatives (Hawaiian Kingdom) and the House of Nobles. Following the overthrow and fall of the Kingdom in 1894 by American residents, this Legislature became the legislative body of the briefly established Republic of Hawaii, and shortly afterwards under the newly organized Territory of Hawaii following the annexation by the United States in 1898. The current Hawaii State Legislature was created following the passage of the Hawaii Admission Act by the United States Congress in 1959 when the Territory of Hawaii was admitted to the Union as the 50th State.