STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2717

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3000

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Government Operations and Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 3000 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MENSTRUAL PRODUCTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Accounting and General Services to provide menstrual products at no cost in specified restrooms in the public buildings the Department maintains.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Accounting and General Services; Hawaiʻi State Public Library System; Hawaiʻi Civil Rights Commission; State Council on Developmental Disabilities; Judiciary; one member of the Kauaʻi County Council; Rainbow Family 808; Stonewall Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi; Pride at Work-Hawaiʻi; Breastfeeding Hawaii; Hawaii Medical Service Association; Maʻi Movement Hawaiʻi, Inc.; Hawaiʻi Women's Coalition; Save Medicaid Hawaii; ACLU of Hawaiʻi; IATSE 665; Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii; Midwives Alliance of Hawaii; and thirty-eight individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from surfing4truth and forty-seven individuals.

Your Committees find that eighty-six percent of people who menstruate have started their periods unexpectedly in public, and thirty-four percent have needed to leave what they were doing to retrieve menstrual products at home. Furthermore, your Committees find that for individuals who menstruate, accessible period supplies may be the difference between going to work or missing out on professional development opportunities. Additionally, your Committees find that menstrual products are a basic hygiene necessity for our population like toilet paper, paper towels, and hand soap, which the State already provides free of cost in all bathrooms. Moreover, your Committees find that there have been little to no instances of vandalism, product overuse, waste, or damage to bathroom facilities that currently supply menstruation products as was evidenced in school pilot programs, at the Hawaii State Capitol, and Hawaii State Judiciary. Therefore, this measure establishes wider access to free menstrual products and reduces barriers faced by residents and visitors to state buildings in meeting basic needs.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2112, to encourage further discussion; 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 Government Operations and Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3000, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3000, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Government Operations and Health and Human Services,

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair

________________________________ ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Chair