STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3535

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 52

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 52, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE SELECTIVE SERVICE REGISTRATION AWARENESS AND COMPLIANCE ACT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require compliance, with certain exceptions, with the Military Selective Service Act to qualify for state financial assistance for state-supported post-secondary education.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the United States Selective Service System, Hawaii Headquarters.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the University of Hawai‘i System.

     Your Committees find that the United States Military Selective Service Act requires all male citizens and males residing in the United States, except for lawfully admitted non‑immigrants, to register with the Selective Service System upon reaching the age of eighteen.  Federal law provides that any person who is not in compliance with the Military Selective Service Act is ineligible for federal student financial assistance and employment within the executive branch of the federal government.  Your Committees further find that twenty-seven percent of males eighteen years of age or older in Hawaii have not registered with the Selective Service System.  If these individuals do not register before the age of twenty-six, they will permanently lose eligibility for federal benefits linked to the Selective Service registration requirement.  By conditioning state student financial assistance benefits on compliance with the Selective Service registration requirement, this measure will encourage individuals not currently in compliance to register.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting language that would have required the University of Hawaii to ensure that applicants and enrollees under its jurisdiction comply with the Military Selective Service Act;

     (2)  Clarifying that a person is exempt from compliance with the Military Selective Service Act if the person is under eighteen years of age, rather than eighteen years of age or under;

     (3)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2018, to provide the University of Hawaii additional time for adequate planning and implementation; and

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 52, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 52, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means,

________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair

________________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair