CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. NO. 6
Honolulu, Hawaii
H.D. 2
C.D. 1
President of the Senate
Twenty-Fourth State Legislature
State of Hawaii
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Fourth State Legislature
State of Hawaii
Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives in S.B. No. 1047, H.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HIGHWAY SAFETY,"
having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.
The purpose of this measure is to allow a driver who is at least nineteen years of age who meets certain requirements to obtain a commercial driver's license to drive in intrastate commerce.
Your Committee on Conference finds that there is a shortage of commercial drivers in Hawaii and the age requirement for commercial licenses makes recruiting younger individuals, such as high school seniors, difficult because they have to wait years to obtain a license.
The current age required to receive a commercial driver's license is twenty-one. This measure would increase the pool of qualified commercial drivers by lowering the age to nineteen. Your Committee is keenly aware that lowering the age may not solve the problem of the shortage of drivers, and may present highway safety concerns. However, the measure addresses these concerns in large part by ensuring that the applicant has a safe driving record in order to obtain a commercial driver's license.
In addition, your Committee on Conference believes that increasing the eligible pool of commercial drivers will increase demand for commercial driving schools and other instructional programs to enable the licensing of more commercial drivers. High school seniors would be more inclined to consider commercial driving as a career if the license eligibility age were nineteen.
Your Committee has amended the measure by deleting the requirement that a commercial drivers license applicant under the age of twenty-one complete a Department of Transportation administered training program and by changing the effective date from July 1, 2012, to upon its approval. Your Committee has also made a technical amendment to remove an extraneous subsection designation in section 1 of the bill.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1047, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1047, H.D. 2, C.D. 1.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:
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JOSEPH M. SOUKI, Co-Chair |
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J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair |
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TOMMY WATERS, Co-Chair |
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