STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2541
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2006
RE: S.B. No. 2617
S.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2006
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2617 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to specifically appropriate Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) funds for programs and increase the standard of assistance for TANF families.
Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from the Department of Health, the State Department of Defense, Blueprint for Change, the National Association of Social Workers, and one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to the measure from the Department of the Attorney General and an individual who is a member of the Financial Assistance Advisory Committee. The Department of Human Services, Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, and an individual who is a member of the Welfare and Employment Rights Coalition (WERC) submitted comments.
Your Committee finds that this measure will implement the recommendations of the Department of the Attorney General on the use of TANF funds and appropriating funds for specific programs.
Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Replacing appropriations for specific programs with appropriations for unspecified programs that fall within at least one of the four purposes of the TANF program;
(2) Substituting dollar amounts in blank appropriations;
(3) Specifying that the Department of Human Services may transfer TANF funds to the social services block grant and the child care development block grant;
(4) Adding an appropriation for operating costs, including personnel, systems, and administration expenses;
(5) Noting that the TANF reauthorization within the recently-enacted federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 will require the State to meet heightened family work participation requirements to avoid financial penalty; and
(6) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2617, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2617, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,
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____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair |
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