STAND. COM. REP. NO. 802

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 385

       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 Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 385 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CANCER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to continue to support the Department of Health breast and cervical cancer control program through an appropriation of moneys.   

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, The Queen's Health Systems, and Susan G. Komen Hawaii.  Written comments on this measure were submitted by the Department of Health.

     Your Committee finds that since 1997, the breast and cervical cancer program has provided critical screening and early detection services to over nine thousand five hundred women in the State.  Your Committee further finds that, while progress is being made, the lives of nearly two hundred women in Hawaii are taken by breast and cervical cancers each year.  Your Committee also finds that federal funding for the program has declined over the last five-year grant period, but the need for outreach and screening has increased.  Providing funds for the program will allow the program to continue to provide its screening, education, treatment, and outreach services.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the appropriation amount to an unspecified sum; and

     (2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure. 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 385, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 385, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair