First came the word that two members of the House Finance Committee–Isaac Choy and James Tokioka–had been removed, to be replaced by two votes considered more loyal to House Speaker Scott Saiki.

The move meant that Choy, an accountant who was in a position to raise informed questions about the proposed rail financing, will be shut out of the committee-level questioning and debate, definitely muting his voice.

That’s unfortunate. Although I sometimes differed with Choy’s take on specific issues, his professional background as an accountant provided insights that would otherwise be absent.

Choy and Tokioka’s removal from Finance was part of the committee reorganization spelled out in House Resolution No. 3. According to the status report, HR3 has yet to be offered. I have yet to go through it carefully to see if other changes are also included.

In other leadership changes, House Resolution 2, adopted yesterday, dumped Marcus Oshiro as Majority Policy Leader, and removed Ken Ito as Majority Whip. Check the link to see the new House leadership lineup.

But this is really background noise to the contentious rail debate.

Don’t forget that you can read the first day’s rail testimony here, with late testimony added here.