STAND. COM. REP. NO.  240-16

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

RE:   H.B. No. 2227

      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 Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 2227 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to support ongoing efforts to improve access to government services and programs for limited English proficient individuals by appropriating funds to operate the Statewide Language Access Resource Center and the Multilingual Website Pilot Project.

Catholic Charities Hawaii and the Hawaii Filipino Lawyers Association testified in support of this measure.  The Office of Language Access and an individual commented on this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Making the appropriations in unspecified amounts; and

(2)  Changing its effective date to July 1, 2070, to encourage further discussion.

     Should your Committee on Finance deliberate this measure further, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider appropriating:

(1)  $300,000 for fiscal year 2016-2017 to operate the Statewide Language Access Resource Center; and

(2)  $150,000 for fiscal year 2016-2017 to operate the Multilingual Website Pilot Project.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2227, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2227, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Labor & Public Employment.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair