STAND. COM. REP. NO.  564-14

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2014

RE:   H.B. No. 1740

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 1740, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LANGUAGE ACCESS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to ensure the effective implementation and provision of language access assistance services in the State by government agencies and state-funded entities by amending the amount of funds appropriated for Fiscal Year 2014-2015 during the Regular Session of 2013 for the establishment of the Statewide Language Access Resource Center and the multilingual website pilot project.

The Office of Community Services in the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Hawaii Educational Policy Center; National Federation of Filipino American Associations; Hawaii Friends for Civil Rights; Nursing Advocates & Mentors, Inc.; Filipino Coalition for Solidarity; and two concerned individuals testified in support of this measure.  The Office of Language Access in the Department of Health and Hawaii Civil Rights Commission commented on this measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1740, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

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

____________________________

SYLVIA LUKE, Chair