STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3495

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2448

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Labor, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 2448, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO A STATEWIDE DATA HUB,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) to establish and maintain a statewide data hub to collect employer and employee data;

(2) Authorize DBEDT to determine the type of employer and employee data to collect, the functions of the statewide data hub, and access and document retention policies for the data; and

(3) Appropriate funds for the design, installation, population, and management of a statewide data hub.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and Office of Enterprise Technology Services. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Food Industry Association, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, and one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance and Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.

Your Committees find that DBEDT currently does not have the authority to collect and analyze employer data related to industry and occupational wages by county or other employment conditions and practices. Your Committees further find that this type of data is vital to the effective operation of several programs within the purview of DBEDT. Your Committees recognize the concerns of testifiers in opposition regarding the broad language in the measure relating to the employer and employee data to be collected.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the employer and employee data to be collected by DBEDT is limited to the information and data that is available to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations pursuant to section 371-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, regarding research, statistics, and the duty of employers to keep certain records; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Labor, Culture and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2448, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2448, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and Labor, Culture and the Arts,

________________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair