STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3352

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1740

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1740, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LANGUAGE ACCESS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the appropriation amounts for fiscal year 2014-2015 contained in Act 217, Session Laws of Hawaii 2013, for the establishment of the statewide Language Access Resource Center and the establishment of the multilingual website pilot project.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Office of Language Access; and the Hawaii Interpreter Action Network.

     Your Committee recognizes that a sizeable segment of Hawaii's population has limited English proficiency and finds that, to ensure equal access to the services of government agencies and state-funded entities, it is imperative that the statewide Language Access Resource Center and the multilingual website pilot project be fully established.  Your Committee notes that the Office of Language Access has made progress towards the creation of the statewide Language Access Resource Center and the multilingual website pilot project.  This measure will ensure continued progress by providing the Office of Language Access with the appropriate funding to complete these endeavors.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the 2014-2015 fiscal year appropriations to establish a statewide Language Access Resource Center and a multilingual website pilot project to unspecified amounts to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

     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. 1740, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1740, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair