STAND. COM. REP. NO. 664-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: H.B. No. 1762

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness, to which was referred H.B. No. 1762 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LANGUAGE ACCESS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Office of Language Access to submit an annual report to the Governor and Legislature regarding compliance with state and federal language access laws; and

(2) Appropriate funds to establish Limited English Proficiency Language Coordinator positions in the Departments of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Health, and Agriculture and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Department of Human Services, Department of Health, Office of Community Services, Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights, Common Cause Hawaii, The Legal Clinic, Waipahu Safe Haven Center, Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Hawai‘i Public Health Institute, Hawai‘i Children's Action Network Speaks!, and nine individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Department of Budget and Finance, Office of Language Access, and Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency.

Your Committee finds that persons with limited English proficiency often face barriers in accessing important benefits and services, including access to health care and other public benefits, essential information during public health or safety emergencies, and access to earned benefits such as unemployment compensation or worker's compensation. Your Committee further finds that although the Office of Language Access was created in 2006 to address these language barriers, when a government entity fails to provide language access, the Office is only authorized to eliminate the language barrier through informal means. This measure strengthens the Office of Language Access's ability to ensure compliance with state and federal language access laws by requiring the Office to submit an annual report, which will provide the Governor and Legislature with timely information that is crucial in improving the State's efforts to enhance and promote language access.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Appropriating funds to establish three Limited English Proficiency Language Coordinator positions in the Office of Language Access to work with all state departments and agencies, rather than establishing separate coordinator positions in the Departments of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Health, and Agriculture, and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2060, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1762, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1762, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness,

____________________________

RYAN I. YAMANE, Chair