STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3680

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.C.R. No. 8

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 8 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION RATIFYING A PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES GIVING THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES POWER TO LIMIT, REGULATE, AND PROHIBIT THE LABOR OF PERSONS UNDER EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to ratify a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States giving the Congress of the United States power to limit, regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of San Diego School of Law's Children's Advocacy Institute, and one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that House Joint Resolution 184, approved by the Sixty-Eighth Congress in 1924, proposed an amendment to the United States Constitution to give Congress the power to regulate child labor. Your Committee further finds that the proposal to amend the Constitution is still outstanding because Congress did not set a time limit for its ratification by the states, and that Hawaii is one of several states that have no record of taking action on the proposed amendment. Your Committee also finds that federal regulation of child labor is now provided under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended; however, by ratifying the proposed amendment, the Legislature would demonstrate the State's stance on the issue.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 8 and recommends its adoption.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair