STAND. COM. REP. NO. 348

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1065

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Technology and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1065 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SKILLS-BASED HIRING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to prohibit the State or any of its departments, agencies, or political subdivisions from requiring a bachelor's degree as a condition of eligibility for hire to a position in state employment, with certain exemptions.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Accounting and General Services, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, and three individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Resources Development and Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committees find that degree requirements have become an outdated measure of a worker's ability in many fields. Rather than cultivating a diverse, capable workforce, rigid degree requirements often limit employment opportunities and allow stagnancy. They can also exacerbate labor shortages. This measure addresses this obsolete requirement by requiring a shift to skills-based hiring and prohibiting a bachelor's degree from being a requirement for public employment where practical.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Technology and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1065, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1065, S.D. 1, 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 Government Operations,

________________________________ ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Chair

________________________________ HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair