CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. NO. 83

Honolulu, Hawaii

                 , 2017

RE:    S.B. No. 102

       H.D. 1

       C.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sirs:

     Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives in S.B. No. 102, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE FEDERAL FUNDING POLICY STUDY,"

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

     The purpose of this measure is to address the federal funding policy study mandated by Act 225, Session Laws of Hawaii 2016. 

Specifically, the measure:

(1)  Amends Act 225 to change the state agency charged with conducting the federal funding policy study required by that Act from the Office of the Governor to the Department of Budget and Finance;

(2)  Specifies that the fiscal bienniums to be covered by the study are 2017-2019 and 2019-2021; and

(3)  Extends the deadline for the study from no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2018 to October 1, 2018.

Your Committee on Conference finds that the Office of Federal

Awards Management within the Department of Budget and Finance currently monitors federal funds received by the State and bears the major responsibility for budgetary policies.  This familiarity, along with the Department's practical appreciation of the need for sustainable revenues, makes the Department more suited to conducting the federal funding policy study than the Office of the Governor. 

     Your Committee on Conference has amended this measure to:

(1)  Appropriate $100,000 in fiscal year 2017-2018 for the preparation of the federal funding policy study; and

(2)  Change the effective date from July 1, 2030, to July 1, 2017.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 102, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 102, H.D. 1, C.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:

ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

ON THE PART OF THE SENATE

____________________________ SYLVIA LUKE Chair

____________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA Chair