Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2472 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Office of Health Status Monitoring of the Department of Health to establish a system to allow people of Hawaiian heritage to have access to and copies made of their vital records to prove their ethnic identity without charge to them.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), the Oahu Council of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, and four concerned citizens.

Your Committee finds that the increased cost of vital records searches has caused an economic hardship for individuals trying to verify their eligibility for the Hawaiian home lands program and other Hawaiian entitlement programs.

While DHHL has made efforts to reduce the documentation required of its clients, the process of determining an individual's native Hawaiian qualifications is still time consuming and costly.

Therefore, your Committee supports this measure, which appropriates public funds to establish a more efficient system to allow native Hawaiians to access their vital statistics.

The appropriation amount has been left blank for determination by your Committee on Ways and Means.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2472 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.