STAND. COM. REP. NO.  289

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   H.B. No. 1239

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 1239 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to provide the Attorney General with the necessary funds to actively pursue and prosecute major civil false claims perpetrated against the State without diverting existing resources by authorizing the Attorney General to:

     (1)  Deposit 33 percent of proceeds of actions or settlements

          from a false claim prosecution into a False Claims Trust

          Fund; and

     (2)  Expend the funds in the False Claims Trust Fund to

          prosecute false claims under section 661-22, Hawaii

          Revised Statutes (HRS). 

     The Attorney General and a concerned individual testified in support of this bill.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the only use for the funds in the False

          Claims Trust Fund is for expenditures necessary to

          prosecute false claims under section 661-22, HRS;

     (2) Removing the $1,000,000 appropriation from the False

          Claims Trust Fund to the Attorney General; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style,         clarity, and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1239, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1239, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

____________________________

TOMMY WATERS, Chair