Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1123, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to require the Department of Health (DOH), upon request, to verify the existence of a birth, death, marriage, or divorce certificate and the essential facts contained therein in lieu of the issuance of a certified copy of the certificate.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Department of Health with the request that the bill be amended to return the verification fee to the amount specified in the original version of the bill.

Presently, a certified copy of a birth, death, marriage, or divorce certificate is necessary to conduct many personal, legal, and business transactions, and the only current means of verification is through actual, certified documents.

Your Committee understands that this measure will provide an alternative method to verify information contained in vital records at the Department of Health. This should allow for more expeditious processing of information.

Although your Committee is in accord with the intent of this measure, it has amended it by amending the fees for verification to make them equal to the fees for certified copies.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1123, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1123, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committees on Consumer Protection and Commerce and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.