STAND. COM. REP. NO. 673-18

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2018

RE: H.B. No. 2341

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2341 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO QUALIFIED DOMESTIC RELATIONS ORDERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Allow direct payment to a spouse or former spouse of an Employees' Retirement System (ERS) member or retirant to include the former spouse or former members with vested benefit status when the former spouse has been awarded all or a portion of ERS retirement benefits as ordered or decreed by a court in a domestic relations proceeding;

(2) Make ERS benefits payable to an alternate payee whether the Hawaii qualified domestic relations order is certified prior to or after the ERS member, former member with vested benefit status, or retirant retires;

(3) Postpone implementation of Act 263, Session Laws of Hawaii 2016, from July 1, 2018, to July 1, 2020; and

(4) Appropriate funds for fiscal year 2018-2019 for the planning and expenditures necessary to implement this measure.

The Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement System testified in support of this measure.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing its effective date to January 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2341, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2341, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Public Employment,

____________________________

AARON LING JOHANSON, Chair