Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs and Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 720 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to expand the protection against discrimination of a person with disabilities by the State and to add coverage to include counties.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Disability and Communication Access Board, State Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities, Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Centers for Independent Living-East Hawaii, Hawaii Centers for Independent Living, Mental Health Association of Hawaii, Aloha State Association for the Deaf, The Arc in Hawaii, and two individuals. The Department of Accounting and General Services submitted testimony in opposition.

Your Committees finds that currently the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II, which prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities from accessing any program, service, or activity of government, is facing a legal challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court. The challenge is not whether persons with disabilities are deserving of fundamental civil rights protection, but whether the Congress of the United States abrogated state sovereignty rights when drafting the statute.

Your Committees further find that the State of Hawaii joined in supporting the states' rights issue in the case of Garrett v. Alabama, arguing that the government had adequate protections in state law to support the nondiscrimination of persons with disabilities in Hawaii. Your Committees find, however, that current state law does not provide the appropriate mechanisms to ensure equal services, and that this measure would bring state law into compliance with the federal statutes.

Your Committees have amended this measure to make the Act effective January 1, 2002, and to make technical amendments to reflect preferred drafting style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs and Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 720, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 720, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.