WHEREAS, the State is committed to ensuring that all residents have access to affordable, quality health care; and

WHEREAS, the network of nonprofit federally qualified health centers provides critically needed primary and preventative care to low income communities throughout the State; and

WHEREAS, capital outlays for purchase or construction of adequate facilities, equipment, and technology systems are needed for these federally qualified health centers to provide quality care and ensure patient and staff safety; and

WHEREAS, the costs for land lease or purchase, facility renovation or construction, and equipment and technology acquisition are substantial and increasing; and

WHEREAS, federally qualified health centers, by virtue of their mission and financing, find it difficult to pay for capital costs or to obtain conventional financing; and

WHEREAS, the establishment of a low-interest revolving loan for federally qualified health center capital improvement projects would assist such health centers to serve low income people, and, hence, address the State's commitment; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Department of Health is requested to convene a task force of interested stakeholders to research avenues of appropriate financing for capital improvements for federally qualified health centers, including but not limited to revolving loan funds; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to report findings and recommendations to the Legislature twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2007; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Health, the Director of Finance, the Director of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, the Hawaii Primary Care Association, and the Hawaii Community Foundation.