STAND. COM. REP. NO. 985

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 498

       H.D. 1

       S.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 Human Services and Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 498, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE ADULT PROTECTIVE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES BRANCH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make appropriations to the Department of Human Services to fund eleven positions in the Adult Protective and Community Services Branch.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that in 2009, the Adult Protective and Community Services Branch of the Department of Human Services suffered a twenty-five percent reduction in staff due to the economic crisis.  That same year, a change in statute expanded the Branch's client population, resulting in a fifty-one percent increase in adult protective services investigations.  Your Committee further finds that the Adult Protective and Community Services Branch requires additional staff to effectively serve and protect Hawaii's vulnerable adults who are in danger of being abused, neglected, or financially exploited.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting language that authorizes the Department of Human Services to extend the federal ceiling and increase the federal funds available for the positions within the Adult Protective and Community Services Branch funded by this measure; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 498, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 498, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Housing,

________________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair