STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2712

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3111

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 Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 3111 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT ESTABLISHING A COMMISSION TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR CONGRESSWOMAN PATSY T. MINK,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to establish a commission to recognize and honor Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink.

Your Committee finds that Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink's public service in Congress and in the Territory and the State greatly impacted the lives of many women and children, not only in Hawaii but also throughout the United States, improving the quality of their lives. Having personally experienced gender and racial discrimination as a young Japanese woman, she was strongly committed in her support of equality for women, civil rights, and public education. Congresswoman Mink was one of America's earliest and most dedicated civil rights leader. Your Committee firmly supports this bill's establishment of a commission to recognize and honor Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Including the phrase "the feminist community" as a group that must be represented on the Patsy T. Mink Commission to conform with the bill's requirement for the President of the Senate to select a commission member who represents the feminist community;

(2) Requesting the Library of Congress to participate by submitting to the Governor its list of nominees;

(3) Adding two members of the public as a group that must be represented on the commission;

(4) Requiring the county councils to select the members of the commission representing the family of Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink, the American Civil Liberties Union, and two members representing the public;

(5) Changing the date by which the commission is required to submit its report to the Legislature from no later than sixty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2007 to no later than twenty days before the 2007 Regular Session convenes;

(6) Changing the amount appropriated from $10,000 to an unspecified amount to promote continuing discussion on the matter; and

(7) Making technical nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3111, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3111, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

		____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair