The state Senate and House of Representatives held sessions on Friday afternoon to position bills in committees before an important procedural deadline known as first lateral.

Bills are referred to one or more committees that have jurisdiction over their subject matter or financial impact. The bills have to reach the final committee they were assigned to by the deadline, which can mean life or death for some bills, especially those referred to several committees.

While the bills that lawmakers have made priorities for the session are still alive, others missed the cut, such as one that would add a 50 percent surcharge to traffic fines and another that would ban extreme fighting tournaments.

ISSUE WATCH

Education: House lawmakers have advanced a bill that would create a working group to help develop an early-learning system available to all 4-year-olds statewide. The idea grew out of a task force assigned by the Legislature last session to study how to expand access and improve quality at preschools. The bill moves to the House Finance Committee.

Affordable housing: Senate lawmakers pushed forward with a bill that would provide money for homeless and transitional housing programs and offer a low-income housing tax credit for the construction or rehabilitation of affordable housing. Money would also be used to repair vacant public housing units. The bill moves to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Tax relief: Several lawmakers believe an increase in the standard income tax deduction may be the most popular of the tax relief proposals being floated in light of the state's budget surplus. Raising the standard deduction has the support of Gov. Linda Lingle, Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), and, in the past, Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman Brian Taniguchi, D-10th (Manoa, McCully).

Alternative energy: The House seems ready to suspend the state's cap on wholesale gasoline prices but two key lawmakers in the Senate, Sen. Ron Menor, D-17th (Mililani, Waipi'o), and Sen. J. Kalani English, D-6th (E. Maui, Moloka'i, Lana'i), say they are not interested in suspending or repealing the cap.

Lawmakers and the Lingle administration are collaborating on a series of initiatives to reduce the state's dependence on fossil fuel through conservation and renewable energy.

OVERHEARD

"We're worried about huge, huge liability hanging over us."

— Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu, D-41st (Waipahu, Village Park, Waikele), chairman of the House Economic Development and Business Concerns Committee, on the stalled Hokuli'a luxury home project on the Big Island

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