STAND. COM. REP. NO.  357-16

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

RE:   H.B. No. 2186

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2186 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DISLOCATED SUGAR WORKERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to support workers affected by the cessation of sugar production on Maui by appropriating funds to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to provide workforce development, worker training and retraining, and other assistance programs for dislocated workers.

The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Department of Agriculture; a Maui County Councilmember; County of Maui Department of Management; United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO; Maui County Farm Bureau; Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO; ILWU Local 142; Maui Chamber of Commerce; Hawaii State AFL-CIO; Hawaii Farm Bureau; Hawai‘i Construction Alliance; Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.; Ho‘omama Pono, LLC; and several concerned individuals testified in support of this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by allowing the funds appropriated to be used as matching or leverage funds in federal grant applications.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2186, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2186, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Public Employment,

____________________________

MARK M. NAKASHIMA, Chair