STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1013

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 424

       S.D. 2

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. 424, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to expand the Bridge to Hope program to enable heads of households who are receiving financial assistance and who are participating in the First-to-Work programs to pursue educational activities beyond the new two-year federal limit.

     The University of Hawai‘i System; the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; Hawai‘i Bridge to Hope; the National Association of Social Workers; Hawaii Women Work; American Association of University Women, Windward Branch; and twenty-three individuals, many of whom are current and former participants in the Bridge to Hope program, submitted testimony in support of this measure.  The Department of Human Services submitted written comments.

     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.  The federal law has a grandfather provision for current student participants that allows them to finish their education.  However, new participants would be prohibited from pursuing baccalaureate education.  Your Committee recognizes the significant impact that access to post-secondary education can have on economic self-sufficiency.  A full range of educational activities maximizes participants' current benefits and increases their long-term ability to support themselves and their families.

     According to the Department of Human Services' testimony, it is a requirement of the Bridge to Hope program that participants attend school on a full-time basis.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by adding language to ensure that the participants are attending school on a full-time basis as defined by the post‑secondary educational institution that they are attending.

     It is your Committee's intent to enable new First-To-Work participants to continue their educational activities beyond the two-year federal limit by transferring them to the state-funded Bridge to Hope 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. 424, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 424, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Public Housing,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair