STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2402

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 3123
                                        S.D. 1




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

Sir:

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services and Education
and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 3123 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to create a post-secondary
education transitional benefits program within the Department of
Human Services (DHS).

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this
measure from the Department of Human Services, Hawaii State
Commission on the Status of Women, American Friends Service
Committee, Brigham Young University-Hawaii Campus, National
Association of Social Workers, University of Hawaii, and eight
private citizens.

     The program will be known as "bridge to hope" for heads of
households in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program
(TANF).  The Federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Act of 1996 abolished the sixty-one year old Aid to Families with
Dependent Children entitlement program and replaced it with a
transitional aid program, TANF, that requires recipients who are
able to work to secure employment at the earliest opportunity.
The new law places a heavy burden on the states to meet strict
work participation requirements.


 
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     Bridge to hope allows TANF recipients to continue to receive
benefits if they are pursuing a post-secondary education,
notwithstanding the work requirement of TANF.

     Your Committees find that there are many barriers to work,
frustrating the best efforts of public assistance recipients to
join the work force on a permanent basis.  Moreover, sharp
competition for scarce jobs often leaves those with little
experience or education behind.  The picture is even more grim
considering that over ninety per cent of assistance households
are currently headed by women.  Since approximately two-thirds of
all women in Hawaii are working in sales, clerical, and service
type jobs which receive the lowest wages, it is unlikely that the
majority of assistance households will be able to move out of
poverty and be self-sufficient without adding to their knowledge
and skills to increase their earning capacity.

     Your Committees further find that transitional benefits are
needed to provide the necessary support to enable recipients to
secure education and training beyond high school, in order to
support the successful transition from public assistance to self-
sufficiency through a transitional benefits program for public
assistance recipients.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Requiring the single parent to be enrolled at least as
          a part-time student each semester, with the number of
          credit hours calculated in the same manner as in the
          Federal Student Aid Program;

     (2)  Deleting provisions regarding satisfactory proof of
          completion of the educational or vocational program,
          additional assistance and subsidies, credit hours
          counting towards work requirements, exemption from TANF
          maintenance of effort, and the definition of
          "substantial hardships";

     (3)  Clarifying that credit hours count towards work
          requirements under TANF, including internships,
          externships, practicums, and other work-training;

     (4)  Allowing the DHS to require additional or fewer hours
          federally defined work activities to meet federal
          requirements for TANF;

     (5)  Requiring the DHS to provide additional support to a
          recipient if all available educational financial aid
          has been exhausted;

 
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     (6)  Requiring the DHS to report to the legislature for the
          2002, 2003, and 2004 Regular Sessions on the program;

     (7)  Appropriating $5 million for the program; and

     (8)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive change for clarity.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Health and Human Services and Education and
Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are
in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3123, as
amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the
form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3123, S.D. 1, and be referred to
the Committee on Ways and Means.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committees on Health and Human
                                   Services and Education and
                                   Technology,



____________________________       ______________________________
DAVID Y. IGE, Chair                SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

 
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