STAND. COM. REP. NO. 598

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1731

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services and Public Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 1731 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 appropriate moneys for the Bridge to Hope program to accommodate new federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program recipients who are students to pursue education activities beyond the new federal, two‑year limit.

     The University of Hawai‘i System, Bridge to Hope, the Community Alliance on Prisons, Hawaii Women Work, the League of Women Voters of Hawaii, the National Association of Social Workers, the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, and nineteen individuals submitted testimony in support of this measure.  The Department of Human Services submitted testimony in support of the intent of this measure.

     Your Committee finds that recent changes to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program rules and subsequent changes to the First-To-Work programs limit educational activities to two years of study leading to vocational or technical degrees in order to meet federal work requirements.  However, the federal law has a grandfather provision for currently participating students that allows them to finish their education.

     It is your Committee's intent to enable new First-To-Work students to continue their educational activities beyond the two-year federal limit by transferring them to the state-funded Bridge to Hope program.  Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Expanding eligibility in the Bridge to Hope program by making the program available to:

          (A)  Qualifying heads of households receiving financial assistance and participating in the Temporary Assistance to Other Needy Families and First‑to‑Work programs, not just the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program; and

          (B)  A parent, in general, not just a single parent;

     (2)  Clarifying that:

          (A)  To receive assistance under the Bridge to Hope program, participants must be enrolled in an approved course of study such as vocational education; and

          (B)  The work requirements shall be consistent with academic success;

     (3)  Making the appropriation for the Bridge to Hope program to accommodate new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and new Temporary Assistance to Other Needy Families participants; and

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

     Your Committee notes that these amendments to the measure may pose a title issue and requests the Committee on Ways and Means to consider increasing the funding for the Bridge to Hope program in the executive biennium budget to support the expansion of the program.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Public Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1731, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1731, 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 and Public Housing,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair