Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the House of Representatives to the amendments proposed by the Senate in H.B. No. 290, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

The purpose of this bill is to stabilize Hawaii's economy in light of the significant downturn in the visitor industry, the unpredictability of escalating global events, and the numerous layoffs, work furloughs, and decreased work hours that resulted for workers throughout the State.

Specifically, this bill:

1. Establishes a program to provide extended state unemployment insurance benefits to individuals filing claims after September 11, 2001;
2. Ensures that these extended benefits will cease once the unemployment insurance fund reaches the threshold where the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations would be required to increase the unemployment taxes paid by employers;
3. Conforms and allows state statutory provisions to be conformed to the federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) Act of 2002; and
4. Provides that unemployment insurance trust fund moneys may be used to pay for unemployment benefits as well as administrative costs.

Your Committee on Conference finds that on April 16, 2003, the President signed into law a measure providing additional temporary extended unemployment benefits for a restricted class of beneficiaries. Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation for displaced airline related workers, or TEUC-A, provides up to 39 additional weeks of benefits to unemployed workers whose exhausted regular unemployment compensation claim was based in whole, or in part, on qualifying employment with a certified air carrier, an airport facility, or a direct producer or supplier of products or services to air carriers. Any regular TEUC benefits received are to be deducted from benefits available under this special program.

Those eligible for TEUC-A benefits are persons who have exhausted regular, additional, extended, or regular TEUC benefits (including TEUC-X), or persons with an existing TEUC claim on file with a balance remaining, whose regular claim for unemployment compensation was based in whole, or in part, on employment and wages from qualifying employment, and who were laid-off from such employment on or after September 11, 2001, due to:

1. Reductions in airline service because of the terrorist actions of September 11, 2001;
2. The closure of a U.S. airport because of the terrorist actions or security measures; or
3. The conflict with Iraq.

It is the intent of your Committee on Conference that extended state unemployment compensation benefits be provided only to persons who have exhausted regular unemployment compensation benefits and extended or regular TEUC benefits. Your Committee on Conference does not intent that extended state unemployment compensation benefits be provided to persons who receive additional extended federal unemployment compensation benefits for a restricted class of workers pursuant to legislation enacted by Congress and signed into law after April 1, 2003.

Your Committee on Conference has amended this bill by:

(1) Deleting the provision appropriating funds to create a program to provide additional benefits to unemployed workers by extending their unemployment insurance benefits;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2003;

(3) Inserting a repeal date of June 30, 2005; and

4. Making technical, nonsubstantive revisions for purposes of clarity, style, and conformity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 290, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 290, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, C.D. 1.