STAND. COM. REP. NO. 810

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1127

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1127 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to make an emergency appropriation of $5,400,000 to the Department of Human Services to fund general assistance payments in the current fiscal year.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Governor's Coordinator on Homelessness, Hawaii Primary Care Association, Catholic Charities Hawaii, Partners in Care, Akamai Recovery Maui, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the number of individuals receiving certain general assistance payments increased thirty-four percent compared to the previous year. The additional funding provided by this measure will help to maintain the $388 per month level of general assistance to each of the approximately six thousand eight hundred recipients through the end of the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

Your Committee has amended this measure by 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. 1127, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1127, S.D. 1.

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

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DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair