STAND. COM. REP. NO. 212-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 2000

                                 RE: H.B. No. 2022
                                     




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Economic Development and Business
Concerns, to which was referred H.B. No. 2022 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STATUTORY REVISION:
     AMENDING, REENACTING, OR REPEALING VARIOUS PROVISIONS OF THE
     HAWAII REVISED STATUTES AND THE SESSION LAWS OF HAWAII FOR
     THE PURPOSE OF CORRECTING ERRORS AND REFERENCES, CLARIFYING
     LANGUAGE, AND DELETING OBSOLETE OR UNNECESSARY PROVISIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to amend various provisions of
the Hawaii Revised Statutes and the Session Laws of Hawaii
pursuant to chapter 23G, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to correct
errors, update references, clarify language, and delete obsolete
or unnecessary provisions.

     Your Committee finds that all of the statutory amendments
proposed by the measure are of a purely technical nature and
either contain no substantive changes to the law, or, if they
have any substantive effect, are done simply to correct the types
of errors noted in this report.

     Your Committee finds the reasons for the respective
technical amendments made in the bill are as follows:

     Section 1.  L 1999, c 136, § 1, amended  §87-27, HRS, to
improve the cost-effectiveness of the Hawaii Public Employees
Health Fund.  Section 87-27 required, effective July 1, 1966, the
establishment of a supplemental health benefit plan which takes

 
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into account benefits available under the federal Medicare plan.
As enacted, however, §87-27 makes reference to the health benefit
plan "effective 1996".  The "1996" effective date of the health
benefit plan is apparently a typographical error.

     Section 87-27, HRS, should be amended by deleting the
brackets around "1966" to ratify the revisor's replacement of
"1996" with "1966" to reflect the correct effective date of the
health benefit plan.

     Additionally, the phrase "health benefit plan" is changed to
"health benefits plan" to conform to how it is defined in
§87-1(8).

     Section 2.  Section 312-3.7, HRS, established the Hawaii
state library foundation trust fund as a separate fund of the
Hawaii state library foundation. Subsection (f) provided that
subsections (a) to (e) relating to the trust fund took effect
"upon the creation of a Hawaii state library foundation", and
also provided for the repeal of the section on June 30, 1995 if
the Hawaii state library foundation was not established by this
date.   

     Because the Hawaii state library foundation was established
before June 30, 1995, the language of subsection (f) providing
for the effective date of subsections (a) to (e) and for the
possible repeal of section 312-3.7 is superfluous.

     Section 312-3.7, HRS, should be amended by deleting the
unnecessary language of subsection (f) because the Hawaii state
library foundation was established by June 30, 1995.

     Section 3.  Section 348-8(d), HRS, refers to the "state
council on mental health and substance abuse".  The "state
council on mental health and substance abuse" was renamed the
"state council on mental health" by L 1993, c 210, §2.  The
revisor replaced the reference to "state council on mental health
and substance abuse" with the "state council on mental health" to
conform to amendments made by L 1993, c 210, §2.

     Section 348-8(d), HRS, should be amended by deleting the
brackets around "state council on mental health" to ratify the
revisor's replacement of "state council on mental health and
substance abuse" with "state council on mental health".

     Section 4.  Section 348-9(c)(3), HRS, refers to the "state
advisory council on rehabilitation".  L 1999, c 154, §1 amended
§348-8, HRS, by, inter alia, renaming the "state advisory council
on rehabilitation" the "state rehabilitation council". The

 
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reference to the "state advisory council on rehabilitation' in
§348-9(c)(3), HRS, was changed by the revisor to "state
rehabilitation council" to conform to amendments made by L 1999,
c 154, §1.

     Section 348-9(c), HRS, should be amended by deleting the
brackets around "state rehabilitation council" to ratify the
revisor's replacement of "state advisory council on
rehabilitation" with "state rehabilitation council".

     Section 5.  L 1999, c 249 made housekeeping amendments to
chapters 415 and 415B, HRS, by clarifying and updating statutes
governing business registration under the Hawaii Business
Corporation and the Hawaii Nonprofit Corporation Act.  L 1999, c
249, §28 purported to amend §425D-102, HRS, in its entirety to
conform to amendments to chapters 415 and 415B.  However, L 1999,
c 249, §28, as enacted, amends only subsection (a) of §425D-102,
HRS,  and inadvertently deletes subsection (b) of §425D-102
because subsection (b) was not set forth in L 1999, c 249, §28.

     Section 415D-102, HRS, should be amended to restore
subsection (b) which was inadvertently deleted by L 1999, c 249,
§28.

     Section 6.  L 1999, c 246, §2 amended §431:2-203(b), HRS, to
increase fines for the violations of the insurance code to
$10,000 per violation.  However, in setting forth the amended
subsection (b), the words "person has violated any penal
provision of this code or" were omitted from paragraph (2).  The
omission creates an incomplete paragraph and is apparently the
result of a typographical error.  The phrase was not set forth in
brackets to be deleted from paragraph (2). The revisor restored
the phrase "person has violated any penal provision of this code
or" to correct the error in paragraph (2). 

     Section 431:2-203(b), Hawaii Revised Statutes, should be
amended to delete the brackets around "person has violated any
penal provision of this code or" to ratify the revisor's addition
of "person has violated any penal provision of this code or" to
paragraph (2).

     Section 7.  The title of §709-906, HRS, was changed by L
1999, c 18, §18 from "Abuse of family and household members;
penalty" to "Abuse of family or household member; penalty" to
make the title consistent with the contents of the section.
However, no conforming amendment was made to §853-4(13)(P), HRS,
which still refers to "Abuse of family and household members." 


 
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     Section 853-4, HRS, should be amended by replacing the
reference to "Abuse of family and household members" with "abuse
of family or household members" to conform to amendments to §709-
906, HRS, made by L 1999, c 18, §18.

     Section 8.  L 1999, c 93, §7, extended the sunset date of
the joint legislative committee on long term care by amending L
1997, c 339, §4, to change the committee's sunset date from June
30, 1999 to June 30, 2000.  The joint legislative committee was
established by L 1997, c 339, which provided in §4 that the
committee shall "cease to exist on June 30, 1999".  However, §18
of Act 93 provided that §7, extending the committee's sunset
date, took effect on July 1, 1999, one day after the joint
legislative committee ceased to exist.   As enacted, L 1999, c
93, §7 cannot extend the sunset date of the joint legislative
committee since the extension becomes effective one day after the
committee ceases to exist.

     L 1999, c 93, §18 should be amended to change the effective
date of "sections 7, and 9 to 18" to "June 29, 1999" to carry out
the legislative intent to extend the life of the joint
legislative committee on long term care through June 30, 2000.

     Section 9.  L 1999, c 115, §5, amended the title of chapter
662E and section 662E-1, HRS.  However, the prefatory language in
§5 stated that "Chapter 662E" was amended.  This creates some
ambiguity as to whether all remaining provisions of the chapter
were in fact repealed, although each section in that chapter was
also amended separately in sections 6, 7, and 8 of the same Act.

     To eliminate any ambiguity, the prefatory language in
L 1999, c 115, §5 should be amended to state that it is the
"chapter title and section 662E-1", HRS, that is amended to make
the prefatory language consistent with the amendments set forth
in §5.

     Section 10.  L 1999, c 122, §2 amended §183D-2, HRS.
However, the prefatory language in §2 cites "section 183D-4" as
the section being amended.  The discrepancy is apparently the
result of a typographical error.

     The prefatory language of L 1999, c 122, §2 should be
amended to state that "Section 183D-2" is being amended.

     Section 11.  L 1999, c 163, part II, created a special fund
to be designated the "insurance regulation fund" to be expended
by the insurance commissioner to carry out the commissioner's
duties and obligations under title 24.  Sections 20 and 21
provided for the repeal of the "insurance examiners revolving

 
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fund" and the "motor vehicle insurance administration revolving
fund", respectively. 

     Section 26 of Act 163 states that Part II takes effect on
July 1, 1999, and provides that the repeal of the two funds in
"sections 21 and 22" shall take effect after unencumbered funds
in the "insurance examiners revolving fund" and the "motor
vehicle insurance administration revolving fund" are transferred
into the new "insurance regulation special fund".  Since §20
repeals the "insurance examiners revolving fund" and §21 repeals
the "motor vehicle insurance administration revolving fund," the
reference to the effective date of "sections 21 and 22" is
apparently the result of a typographical error.

     Section 26, paragraph (2) of L 1999, c 163, should be
amended to change the reference to the sections authorizing the
repeal of "the motor vehicle insurance administration revolving
fund" and the insurance examiners revolving fund" from "sections
21 and 22" to "sections 20 and 21" to correctly reflect the
provisions of Act 163 that authorize the repeal of the two funds.

     Section 12.  L 1999, c 172, §2 amended chapter 378, HRS, by
adding a new section on breastfeeding.  However, the prefatory
language of §2 stated that "Section 378" was amended by adding a
new section.

     The prefatory language in L 1999, c 172, §2 should be
amended to state that it is "Chapter 378" that is amended.

     Section 13.  L 1999 c 174 amended §431:19-102, HRS, to allow
the insurance commissioner to use administrative rulemaking to
set amounts for fees for captive insurance licensing and license
renewals, effective January 1, 2001.  HSCR 1348 noted that the
Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs requested the
effective date of the bill be changed to 2001 because "it can
take longer than a year to adopt and implement administrative
rules..."  The committee report also stated that the effective
date of the bill was amended "to 2001 as requested by DCCA".
Although §4 of Act 174 states that the Act "shall take effect
upon approval", a proviso in §4 specifically provided that the
amendments to §431:19-102, HRS, in section 1 "shall not take
effect until January 1, 2001."  However, Act 174, §2, required
the insurance commissioner to adopt rules setting the fees "prior
to January 1, 2000", one year before the effective date of the
statute authorizing the commissioner to set the fees by rule.

     L 1999, c 174, §2 should be amended to change the deadline
for rule making from "January 1, 2000" to "January 1, 2001"

 
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because administrative rules cannot be adopted before the
effective date of the statute they implement.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Economic Development and Business Concerns that is
attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the
intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2022 and recommends that it pass
Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Economic
                                   Development and Business
                                   Concerns,



                                   ______________________________
                                   ROBERT N. HERKES, Chair

 
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