STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 570
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2023
RE: H.B. No. 1353
H.D. 1
Honorable Scott K. Saiki
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2023
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Labor & Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 1353 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to
appropriate funds:
(1) For unemployment insurance specialist and unemployment insurance assistant positions within the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to prepare and support the unemployment insurance modernization project; and
(2) To upgrade and modernize the unemployment insurance system.
Your Committee
received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and
Industrial Relations, Transform Hawai‘i
Government, and one individual.
Your Committee finds that the
inadequacies of the existing unemployment insurance system were acutely
apparent when the economic shutdown resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019
pandemic led to the filing of unprecedented numbers of claims that overwhelmed
the system. Upgrades to and
modernization of the system are long overdue.
This measure provides supplemental funds for the modernization project
and an appropriation for fifteen vacant positions within the Department of
Labor and Industrial Relations for the unemployment insurance program to ensure
that the community continues to be served.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Changing the appropriations to unspecified amounts; and
(2) Changing the effective date to June 30, 3000, to encourage further discussion.
Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $1,961,260 to fill the fifteen vacant positions within the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and $36,000,000 for upgrading and modernizing the unemployment insurance system.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1353, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1353, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Government Operations,
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____________________________ SCOT Z. MATAYOSHI, Chair |
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