STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2453

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3212

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 3212 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TELECOMMUNICATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Office of Enterprise Technology Services to establish a working group to identify state office buildings capable of providing equitable telecommunications access to allow residents of the counties of Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui, and rural areas of the City and County of Honolulu, including all residents with disabilities, to participate remotely in legislative hearings.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Office of Enterprise Technology Services, and Hawai‘i Public Health Institute.

Your Committee finds that providing equitable access to the legislative process for nearly four hundred fifty thousand residents on the neighbor islands and all residents with disabilities is a priority to improving the legislative process at the Capitol.

Your Committee further finds that providing access for all residents to participate in the legislative process is a basic right of citizens and should continue to be a priority.

Accordingly, this measure will promote greater participation, accountability, and transparency in the making of laws in Hawaii by establishing a working group to identify suitable locations to provide expanded access options for the people of Hawaii to participate in the law-making process.

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 Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3212, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3212, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Government Operations,

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SHARON MORIWAKI, Chair