STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1201

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 169

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 169, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT SECURITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to assist the unemployed by:

     (1)  Establishing an optional total unemployment rate trigger for extended unemployment benefits if one hundred per cent federal sharing is available under federal law, subject to certain conditions; and

     (2)  Appropriate funds for an automated extended benefit claims system.

     Your Committee received comments in support of this measure from Dwight Takamine, Director, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

     Your Committee finds that this measure provides an alternative unemployment rate trigger under which the State can access federal funds to allow unemployed workers to receive extended benefits.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that extended benefits are to be paid only when one hundred per cent federal sharing is allowed under federal law;

     (2)  Allowing individuals to qualify for extended benefits even after their one-year benefit period has elapsed; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 169, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 169, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair