STAND. COM. REP. NO. 185

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1198

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1198 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FAMILY CAREGIVERS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to each county to design a family caregiver grant program in each county to provide grants to non-paid caregivers who are caring for persons who are aged, infirm, or disabled.

     The City and County of Honolulu Department of Community Services, the Maui County Office on Aging, the Hawaii Aging Advocates Coalition, and the Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs submitted testimony in support of this measure.

     Your Committees find as the testifiers noted, family caregivers often experience financial strains due to the cost of caring for loved ones, as well as the loss of income due to caregiving's impact on a family caregiver's employment.  Many family caregivers must reduce their work hours or forgo work completely to care for loved ones.  This measure would provide grants to each county to design a family caregiver grant program that would help defray some of the financial sacrifices that family caregivers make to care for their loved ones in the home.

     It is the Committees' intent to help support family caregivers.

     Upon further consideration, your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that eligibility requirements for grant recipients include non-paid caregivers;

     (2)  Adding a definition for the term "family caregiver"; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1198, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1198, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

____________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair