STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2906

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.C.R. No. 37

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services and Public Housing, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 37 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A COMPREHENSIVE VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION CENTER FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING INDIVIDUALS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to request the Legislative Reference Bureau to conduct a study into the feasibility of a comprehensive vocational rehabilitation center for deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the State of Hawaii.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Services, the Disability and Communication Access Board, the Deaf Hard of Hearing Advisory Board, and one private citizen.  Comments on the measure were submitted by the Legislative Reference Bureau.

     Your Committee finds that the deaf and hard of hearing community have unique communication and service needs and a comprehensive center would be the first step in improving the resources and services available to enhance their quality of life.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by incorporating the comments made by the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) in order to make the requested study more manageable and enable that agency to complete the study in a timely manner.  Specifically, the LRB requested the elimination of "feasibility" and instead requests a study on the establishment of a comprehensive center, "suggest" rather than "define" services to be delivered, "roughly estimate the costs of establishing" and survey start-up costs of centers in other states rather than "determine the feasibility", and request the participation of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Services for the Blind Division of the Department of Human Services to identify the deaf and hard of hearing population who may benefit from a comprehensive center, rather than have the LRB identify the population on its own.

     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 concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 37, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 37, S.D. 1.

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

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair