STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2361

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2602

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Technology and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2602 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING VICTIM SERVICES FUND,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to transfer the administration of the Human Trafficking Victim Services Fund from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to the Department of the Attorney General.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations' Office of Community Services, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Rainbow Family 808, and three individuals.

Your Committees find that when the Human Trafficking Victim Services Fund was created in 2014, it was placed in the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Your Committees also find that in 2022 and 2023, the Legislature created within the Department of the Attorney General a new Special Investigations and Prosecution Division that serves as the State's primary prosecutorial unit responsible for prosecuting human trafficking and sex trafficking, and a statewide Human Trafficking Prevention Program to provide services and assistance to victims of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children. This measure will allow the Special Investigation and Prosecution Division to use the Human Trafficking Victims Services Fund to supplement programs, grants, or purchase of service contracts that support or provide comprehensive services to these victims.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Technology and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2602 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Labor and Technology and Judiciary,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair