STAND. COM. REP. NO. 941

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1297

       H.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1297, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PENAL CODE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the penal code to allow for the preparation of a corpse for burial and burial of a corpse consistent with traditional Hawaiian cultural customs and practices.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Ko‘olaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club and Ko‘olau Foundation.

     Your Committee finds that this measure would allow for the preparation and burial of iwi.  Your Committee received testimony that allowing for the burial of iwi would be both cost efficient and a more efficient use of limited burial space.  Your Committee also received testimony that a large number of the requests for financial assistance made to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs each year arise from funeral and burial costs that the families cannot afford.  This measure would help to address this situation.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1297, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

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MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair