Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2254 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to a streaming media project to allow legislative hearings and sessions to be broadcast on the Internet.

Your Committee finds that under the democratic form of government, public participation is essential. Yet too few members of the public can take the time off from work or home obligations to attend legislative sessions. Residents on the neighbor islands are particularly precluded from participation due to the cost of traveling to Oahu.

The concept of a streaming media project would allow anyone with an Internet connection to view legislative sessions and hearings, enabling them to track bills they support or oppose, and generally to become more involved with the legislative process. Your Committee finds that the legislature should take advantage of this technology to reach out to the public at a modest cost.

Your Committee has amended this bill by making the amount of the appropriation blank to support further discussion.

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. 2254, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2254, S.D. 1.