STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2452

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2354
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B.
No. 2354 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC ACCESS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to improve legislative access by
the public.

     Specifically, this bill appropriates:

     (1)  $34,500 for fiscal year 2000-2001 for a legislative
          audio streaming pilot project to allow the public to
          access legislative events online through video and
          audio on the Internet;

     (2)  $13,200 for fiscal year 2000-2001 for a second full-
          time staff person for the Legislative Reference Bureau
          Public Access Room to serve the increased needs and
          demands of citizens for legislative access and related
          services while maintaining high quality of services;
          and

     (3)  $       for fiscal year 2000-2001 for a childcare pilot
          project to enable parents of young children to testify
          at state legislative hearings.

 
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     This bill also transfers the responsibility for the sale and
distribution of legislative publications from the Lieutenant
Governor to the Legislative Reference Bureau to enable the
Legislature to improve the usefulness of the statutory
publications and to shift more rapidly toward placing all
legislative information online as a cost-savings and public
access enhancement.  The bill requires the Legislative Reference
Bureau to be responsible for the sale of Session Laws,
supplements, and replacement volumes of the Hawaii Revised
Statutes.

     Finally, the bill requires the Joint Legislative Access
Committee established pursuant to Act 174, Sessions Laws of
Hawaii 1996, to make recommendations to the Senate President and
the Speaker of the House of Representatives on the transition of
control over the sale, distribution, storage, and other ancillary
concerns related to the Legislature's assuming control of
legislative publications.  The bill also authorizes the Joint
Legislative Access Committee, with the prior approval of the
President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, to enter into agreements with the Lieutenant
Governor, the Legislative Reference Bureau, and any other public
or private entity to ensure the efficient transfer of control and
the storage of legislative publications from the Lieutenant
Governor to the Legislature.

     Upon further consideration, your Committee has deleted the
requirement that assigned responsibility for the sale of Session
Laws, supplements, and replacement volumes of the Hawaii Revised
Statutes to the Legislative Reference Bureau and has given that
responsibility instead to the Legislature as a whole.  Your
Committee is cognizant of the physical, logistical, and cost
factors that make it impractical for the Bureau to undertake this
function.  Your Committee has also made technical nonsubstantive
amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No.
2354, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2354, S.D. 1, and
be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.


 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2452
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                                 Respectfully submitted on behalf
                                 of the members of the Committee
                                 on Ways and Means,



                                 ________________________________
                                 CAROL FUKUNAGA, Co-Chair



                                 ________________________________
                                 ANDREW LEVIN, Co-Chair

 
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