STAND. COM. REP. NO. 799

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 925

       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. 925 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish one permanent full-time equivalent fetal alcohol spectrum disorder coordinator position in the Family Health Services Division of the Department of Health.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the State Council on Development Disabilities, March of Dimes, Family Programs Hawaii, Olomea, Inc., and one individual.  Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from one individual.

     Your Committee finds that fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is the most underdiagnosed and preventable developmental disability in Hawaii.  This disorder is the result of alcohol consumption by an individual's mother during pregnancy, and it causes a wide range of effects to the individual such as physical, mental, behavioral, and learning disabilities.  Although the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure are lifelong, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is completely preventable.  Your Committee believes that a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder coordinator will prove to be an important resource in preventing fetal alcohol spectrum disorders throughout the State.

Your Committee notes that a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder coordinator position has previously been established within the Family Health Services Division of the Department of Health.  Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting the establishment of the full-time coordinator position;

     (2)  Changing the appropriation for a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder coordinator position to an unspecified sum; and

     (3)  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. 925, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 925, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair