STAND. COM. REP. NO. 443

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 148

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 148, S.D. 1, entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate monies to establish and operate a comprehensive service center for the deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Advisory Board, Aloha State Association of the Deaf, and twenty-one individuals.

     Your Committee finds that a center providing comprehensive services for deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind individuals in Hawaii has been the dream of the deaf community in Hawaii since 1972.  The creation of a comprehensive service center is intended to promote individual growth, social awareness, productivity, and equality by empowering deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind persons to be full participants in Hawaii's overall community.  The target population for the comprehensive service center is about ten percent of the 260,000 people who are deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind, according to the 2012 Disability Statistics Compendium in the State of Hawaii.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 148, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair