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. 2477 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to clarify the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' ability to award grants, subsidies, and purchase of service contracts and to exempt such awards from the requirements of Chapters 42F and 103F, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the Attorney General and the Hawaiian Caucus of the Twenty-first Legislature. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands supported the measure with amendments. The State Procurement Office opposed the provisions of the measure that exempted grants, subsidies, and purchase of service contracts of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs from Chapter 103F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to the purchase of health and human services. The Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, Ka Lahui Hawaii, and three private citizens opposed passage of the measure. The Department of Land and Natural Resources took no position on the issue.

Your Committee finds that although the measure exempts the Office of Hawaiian Affairs from complying with Chapters 42F and 103F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to grants and subsidies, and the purchase of health and human services, respectively, the measure also requires the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to use those chapters as guides in adopting their own policies.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

Your Committee found it necessary to replace the version of section 10-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, in the measure due to the Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Act 304, Session Laws of Hawaii 1990, which contained a provision that required the underlying provisions of that section to be re-enacted in the form in which they appeared prior to the enactment of Act 304.

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. 2477, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2477, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.