You know that anything can happen in conference when House and Senate go on completely different tangents with the same bills.

Looking at what’s happening on the Senate side, a couple of bills were called to my attention.

For example, there’s HB 2690. It passed the House as a simple measure amending an existing law to require agencies to notify the legislature when they receive federal grants requiring matching funds. The statute already required the matching money to be available and in the control of the agency before applying a grant.

Over in the Senate, because of the limited nature of the bill, it was routed directly to the Ways & Means Committee, where it’s simple contents were replaced with an amazing mix of apparently unrelated provisions guaranteed to draw hot reactions.

As passed by WAM, the bill now:

• Deletes several key positions in the Attorney General’s office, including First Deputy, Administrative Servics Manager, and Special Assistant to the AG.

• Moves the Hawaii film office to the Hawaii Tourism Authority and requires the office to administer film tax credits.

• Reduces school principals, vice-principals, and cafeteria workers from 12-month to 10-month positions.

• Prohibits the state from contributing to the premiums for life insurance that has been part of state workers’ health benefits.

• And makes an additional cut to salaries of legislators, judges, and top administration officials, for FY 2010-11.

I don’t know whether these individual provisions were included in bills that were heard in either House or Senate. What is clear is that the WAM version was not vetted by any of the subject matter committees.

There are a number of these “gut and replace” bills likely to go to conference. With this year’s compressed session schedule, this is definitely fertile ground for behind-the-scenes deal-making that leaves the public out of the loop and gasping for air.