STAND. COM. REP. NO.1220

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: H.B. No. 1138

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 1138 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SUBMISSION OF REPORTS TO THE LEGISLATURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to promote legislative oversight by designating the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) as a "gatekeeper" to track, compile, and distribute reports required by law or legislative resolution to be submitted to the Legislature.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Special Advisor for Technology Development, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, LRB, and a concerned citizen.

Your Committee finds that various Hawaii statutes require the submission of approximately two hundred annual reports to the Legislature. In addition, each session the Legislature requests approximately one hundred additional reports through legislative resolution or Act. Your Committee finds that legislative requests and directives are frequently ignored, and the Legislature has no means to monitor agency compliance on a regular and systematic basis.

Therefore, your Committee supports this measure, which directs the LRB to establish a system to track and monitor agency compliance with reporting requirements. In addition, your Committee supports the provisions of this measure that require the agency preparing a report to comply with certain requirements to facilitate review by legislators and members of the public.

Your Committee amended the measure by:

(1) Amending the purpose section to be more concise;

(2) Adding a new section that creates a new section in Chapter 1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which basically accomplishes the same purpose as the amendments proposed in section 3 of the measure as received;

(3) Requiring that all agency reports be posted electronically on a designated central State of Hawaii website rather than on the agency's internet website;

(4) Eliminating:

(A) The requirement that the LRB periodically report to the Legislature on executive agency and judicial compliance;

(B) The requirement that the LRB coordinate and oversee the distribution of summaries or highlights of each report to all legislators; and

(C) The authority that allows the LRB to adopt formats and other guidelines for the publication of annual and other reports to facilitate the tracking, monitoring, reporting, or coordination required under the measure;

(5) Deleting section 3 of the measure which amended Section 93-12, Hawaii Revised Statutes, since most of the proposed amendments were added to the new section added to Chapter 1, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

(6) Requiring that if an agency is submitting a report that is a consolidation of reports mandated by law, then the submitting agency must also submit a listing of the mandated reports that are included in the consolidated report and the timeframes that the included reports cover.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1138, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1138, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations,

____________________________

CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair