STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3028

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2722

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 2722, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNEMPLOYMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Create a temporary program to provide additional benefits to unemployed workers by extending their unemployment insurance benefits under certain conditions; and

     (2)  Appropriate funds to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations for the purposes of this measure.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO; Hawaii State AFL-CIO; and ILWU Local 142.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Building Industry Association of Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.

     Your Committee finds that public employees who are displaced through privatization or the closure of a state or county facility may face excessive economic hardship.  Implementation of this measure will provide meaningful financial support to public employees who lose their jobs out of no fault of their own.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting its contents and inserting the contents of S.B. No. 3038, S.D. 2 (Regular Session of 2016), a substantively similar measure, which:

          (A)  Creates a temporary program, in counties with a population of less than 200,000, to provide additional benefits to unemployed individuals by extending their unemployment insurance benefits under certain conditions, including enrollment by the unemployed individual in an approved training or retraining course;

          (B)  Appropriates funds to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to carry out its purposes; and

          (C)  Has an effective date of July 1, 2050; and

     (2)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2722, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2722, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair