STAND. COM. REP. NO 3097

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1770

       H.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Transportation and International Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1770, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VETERANS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to honor and recognize Hawaii's residents who have served in the armed forces by allowing applicants for a driver's license or state identification card who are veterans to have their veteran status added to the information on these forms of identification.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Office of Veterans Services, Department of Customer Services of the City and County of Honolulu, The Chamber of Commerce, and Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Transportation.

     Your Committee finds that United States Armed Services veterans frequently carry their discharge or separation papers to prove that they are veterans.  Forty-seven states have already passed some type of legislation to include veteran status on the state's driver's licenses or on a separate card.  This measure honors Hawaii's veterans by allowing veterans to have their veteran status added to the front of their driver's license or state identification card.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Transportation and International Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1770, H.D. 1, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Transportation and International Affairs,

____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair