STAND. COM. REP. NO. 262

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1176

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 1176 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FALSE CLAIMS TO THE STATE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to continue to meet federal financial incentive requirements by:

(1) Increasing penalty amounts for false claims to the State to be the same as the penalty amounts for 2019 under the Federal False Claims Act; and

(2) Providing that the penalty amounts in Hawaii's false claims act for the year 2020 and thereafter shall be the same amounts and for the same effective dates as the penalty amounts adjusted and adopted by the United Sates Department of Justice for the Federal False Claims Act.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and one individual

Your Committee finds that section 1909 of the Social Security Act provides a ten percentage point increase in the State's share of any amount recovered in a state action under a false or fraudulent claim if the State has a false claims act that meets the requirements set forth in section 1909. Section 1909 further requires that the State's false or fraudulent claims law contain a civil penalty that is not less than the amount provided under federal law. This measure brings Hawaii's false claims act into compliance with section 1909 of the federal Social Security Act.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1176, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1176, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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KARL RHOADS, Chair