STAND. COM. REP. NO. 432

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1040

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1040 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SEX TRAFFICKING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to improve the State's efforts to stop sex trafficking by requiring the State Commission on the Status of Women (Commission) to maintain a database for information collection and retrieval processes necessary for policy guidance, training, legislative reporting, and response and prevention programs.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Commission on the Status of Women, Kauai County Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, League of Women Voters, AAUW of Hawaii, Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii, Save Medicaid Hawaii, Kapiolani Sex Abuse Treatment Center, Ho‘ola Na Pua, IMUAlliance, and ten individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Honolulu Police Department, Harm Reduction Hawaii, K&R Enterprises, Community Alliance on Prisons, SWOP Hawaii, and four individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Department of Human Services, and Office of Information Practices.

Your Committee finds that sex trafficking is the commercial sexual exploitation of a minor or the coercive commercial sexual exploitation of any person and can have significant medical, psychological, and social consequences for victims. Currently, the State does not maintain a sex trafficking database.

Your Committee finds that this measure would allow the Commission to collaborate with government and community partners to maintain a database of statistical and demographic information of sex trafficking victims. Your Committee finds that this database can assist in discovering the extent of sex trafficking in Hawaii, developing intervention strategies, and providing victim services.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Adding a privacy provision to protect the names and identities of the victims;

(2) Adding a privacy provision to maintain record confidentiality;

(3) Requiring the database on sex trafficking be made available to the public under certain circumstances;

(4) Requiring the Commission, in its report to the Legislature, to identify funding opportunities for sex trafficking programs;

(5) Removing the requirement that the database must contain the total amount of federal and state funding available for sex trafficking programs;

(6) Requiring certain entities to assist and share data with the Commission; and

(7) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1040, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1040, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair