Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 194 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request the Legal Services Corporation to remove the restrictions on access to public legal services for citizens of the Freely Associated States and to request the Hawaii congressional delegation to introduce legislation to allow access to public legal services for citizens of the Freely Associated States.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation.

Your Committee finds that the United States entered into an agreement known as the Compact of Free Association (Compact) with the Freely Associated States. The Freely Associated States consist of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.

Under the Compact, citizens of the Freely Associated States receive direct funding and the provisions for U.S. federal services. However, under federal rules, federal public legal services provided to citizens of the Freely Associated States by the Legal Services Corporation are limited only to the geographic areas within the Freely Associated States.

Your Committee further finds that in recent years, Hawaii has experienced a great influx of citizens from the Freely Associated States. Hawaii has received appropriations from the U.S. government to provide health, educational, social, or public safety services for the citizens of the Freely Associated States in our State.

However, federal funding for public legal services are not available for citizens of the Freely Associated States when they are in Hawaii or any other state, and this lack of public legal services for these individuals adversely impacts the resources of the State of Hawaii and other jurisdictions who face this same influx of citizens from the Freely Associated States. Based on these recognized problems, your Committee believes that steps should be taken to:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 194 and recommends its adoption.