---
type: "Bill"
title: "RELATING TO VICTIM-COUNSELOR PRIVILEGE."
description: "Expands the victim-counselor privilege under the Hawaii Rules of Evidence to include confidential advocates employed by the University of Hawaii. Increases the minimum number of hours of training a domestic violence victims' counselor must complete to be considered a victim counselor. (SD1)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/hi"
legislature: "Hawaii Legislature"
session: "2023 Regular Session"
identifier: "HB 580"
citation: "Hawaii HB 580 (2023 Regular Session)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Confidential Advocates", "Rules of Evidence", "University of Hawaii", "Victim-Counselor Privilege"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["AMATO", "BELATTI", "COCHRAN", "HUSSEY-BURDICK", "ICHIYAMA", "KAPELA", "KITAGAWA", "LAMOSAO", "LOWEN", "MARTEN", "MARTINEZ", "MATSUMOTO", "MORIKAWA", "PERRUSO", "POEPOE", "TAKENOUCHI"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 38
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2023-01-20"
last_action: "2023-06-14"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/223dd056-5c67-45e7-8569-5721cdf277d6"
source_url: "https://capitol.hawaii.gov/session/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=580&year=2023"
source_hash: "86ed1fd0bca38557ef8d290ffdba0cbad28d4012976730b9b8c2344e778ad36a"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-hi"]
---

# Hawaii HB 580 (2023 Regular Session) — RELATING TO VICTIM-COUNSELOR PRIVILEGE.

Expands the victim-counselor privilege under the Hawaii Rules of Evidence to include confidential advocates employed by the University of Hawaii. Increases the minimum number of hours of training a domestic violence victims' counselor must complete to be considered a victim counselor. (SD1)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB580** (committee substitute) — [source](https://capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2023/bills/HB580_.HTM)
2. **HB580_HD1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2023/bills/HB580_HD1_.HTM)
3. **HB580_SD1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2023/bills/HB580_SD1_.HTM)

## Votes

- Reconsider: The committee on FIN recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. — **14–0** (pass) · lower
- The committee(s) on HRE recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. — **4–0** (pass) · upper
- Reconsider: The committee(s) on JDC recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- The committee on JHA recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- The committee on HET recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. — **7–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- AMATO — primary (person)
- BELATTI — primary (person)
- COCHRAN — primary (person)
- HUSSEY-BURDICK — primary (person)
- ICHIYAMA — primary (person)
- KAPELA — primary (person)
- KITAGAWA — primary (person)
- LAMOSAO — primary (person)
- LOWEN — primary (person)
- MARTEN — primary (person)
- MARTINEZ — primary (person)
- MATSUMOTO — primary (person)
- MORIKAWA — primary (person)
- PERRUSO — primary (person)
- POEPOE — primary (person)
- TAKENOUCHI — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2023-06-14** Act 084, 06/14/2023 (Gov. Msg. No. 1185). `became-law`
- **2023-06-14** Act 084, on 06/14/2023 (Gov. Msg. No. 1185). `became-law`
- **2023-04-28** Transmitted to Governor.
- **2023-04-28** Received notice of House agreement and passage on Final Reading (Hse. Com. No. 890). `receipt`
- **2023-04-27** Passed Final Reading as amended in SD 1 with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Ganaden excused (1). `passage`
- **2023-04-27** House agrees to Senate amendment(s).
- **2023-04-27** Received notice of House reconsideration of action in disagreeing to the amendments proposed by the Senate (Hse. Com. No. 873). `receipt`
- **2023-04-25** Reconsideration of action taken on 04-11-23.
- **2023-04-13** Received notice of disagreement (Hse. Com. No. 721). `receipt`
- **2023-04-11** House disagrees with Senate amendment (s). `amendment-failure`
- **2023-04-06** Returned from Senate (Sen. Com. No. 688) in amended form (SD 1).
- **2023-04-06** Report Adopted; Passed Third Reading, as amended (SD 1). Ayes, 24; Aye(s) with reservations: none. Noes, 0 (none). Excused, 1 (Senator(s) Fevella). Transmitted to House. `passage`
- **2023-04-04** 48 Hrs. Notice 04-06-23.
- **2023-04-04** Reported from JDC (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1601) with recommendation of passage on Third Reading, as amended (SD 1).
- **2023-03-30** The committee(s) on JDC recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in JDC were as follows: 5 Aye(s): Senator(s) Rhoads, Gabbard, Elefante, San Buenaventura, Awa; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 0 Excused: none. `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-03-24** The committee(s) on JDC will hold a public decision making on 03-30-23 9:35AM; Conference Room 016 & Videoconference.
- **2023-03-22** Report adopted; Passed Second Reading and referred to JDC. `reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2023-03-22** Reported from HRE (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1251) with recommendation of passage on Second Reading and referral to JDC.
- **2023-03-16** The committee(s) on HRE recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes in HRE were as follows: 4 Aye(s): Senator(s) Kim, Kidani, Fukunaga, Keith-Agaran; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 1 Excused: Senator(s) Fevella. `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-03-13** The committee(s) on HRE has scheduled a public hearing on 03-16-23 3:00PM; Conference Room 229 & Videoconference.
- **2023-03-09** Referred to HRE, JDC. `referral-committee`
- **2023-03-03** Passed First Reading. `reading-1`
- **2023-03-03** Received from House (Hse. Com. No. 62). `introduction, receipt`
- **2023-03-02** Passed Third Reading with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and none excused (0). Transmitted to Senate. `passage`
- **2023-03-02** Reported from FIN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 894), recommending passage on Third Reading.
- **2023-02-22** The committee on FIN recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes were as follows: 14 Ayes: Representative(s) Yamashita, Kitagawa, Aiu, Chun, Cochran, Garrett, Kahaloa, Kila, Lamosao, Morikawa, Nishimoto, Poepoe, Takenouchi, Ward; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and 2 Excused: Representative(s) Kobayashi, Alcos. `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-02-20** Bill scheduled to be heard by FIN on Wednesday, 02-22-23 2:30PM in House conference room 308 VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE.
- **2023-02-16** Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Todd excused (1).
- **2023-02-16** Reported from JHA (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 535), recommending referral to FIN.
- **2023-02-10** The committee on JHA recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes were as follows: 10 Ayes: Representative(s) Tarnas, Takayama, Ganaden, Holt, Hashimoto, Ichiyama, Ilagan, Kong, Mizuno, Souza; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none. `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-02-08** Bill scheduled to be heard by JHA on Friday, 02-10-23 2:00PM in House conference room 325 VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE.
- **2023-02-07** Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on JHA with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and none excused (0). `reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2023-02-07** Reported from HET (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 130) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to JHA.
- **2023-02-03** The committee on HET recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 7 Ayes: Representative(s) Perruso, Kapela, Marten, Martinez, Matayoshi, Woodson, Garcia; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and 2 Excused: Representative(s) Quinlan, Todd. `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-01-31** Bill scheduled to be heard by HET on Friday, 02-03-23 2:00PM in House conference room 309 VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE.
- **2023-01-27** Referred to HET, JHA, FIN, referral sheet 2 `referral-committee`
- **2023-01-23** Introduced and Pass First Reading. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2023-01-20** Pending introduction.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/223dd056-5c67-45e7-8569-5721cdf277d6`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Hawaii legislature records).