STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2167

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2774

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2774 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to simplify distribution in response to changes in technology and to reduce printing, workload, and delivery costs for all agencies by:

     (1)  Requiring an agency to notify the State Publications Distribution Center, established within the public library system, with identification and location information for electronic publications;

     (2)  Reducing the number of print copies required to be deposited with the State Publications Distribution Center; and

     (3)  Deleting the Board of Education's rulemaking authority regarding the State Publications Distribution Center.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Information Management & Technology and the Hawaii State Public Library System.

     Your Committees find that this measure is in alignment with the information technology strategic plan currently under development by the administration.  Providing government publications in electronic versions will not only reduce printing, workload, and delivery costs, but will also promote government transparency, increase public access to information, and preserve documents in the digital domain in a searchable manner for future reference and analysis.  Your Committees further find that user comments have indicated that seven copies are sufficient for most publications, and this measure would allow the State Publications Distribution Center to request more copies when appropriate while also relieving the center of the burden of handling unneeded materials and agencies from printing and delivering more copies than are useful.

     Your Committees have also requested information from the Chief Information Officer, regarding a time frame for implementation if the requirement to deposit hard copies of documents with the State Publications Distribution Center was amended to require only that the center be notified when an electronic publication was posted online.

     Your Committees have amended this measure accordingly, by:

     (1)  Requiring the Chief Information Officer, with the assistance of the Office of Information Management and Technology and the Hawaii State Public Library System, to review the technology, personnel, training, fiscal, and other requirements necessary to implement a program through which state and county agencies would make all of their publications available in electronic format for online distribution, and to submit the findings and recommendations to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2013; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2774, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2774, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

____________________________ CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair