STAND. COM. REP. NO. 282

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 502

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 Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 502 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require:

(1) Notification to the Legislative Reference Bureau of any report required for submission to the Legislature;

(2) The Legislative Reference Bureau to develop a spreadsheet on the status and subject of all required reports;

(3) The Legislative Reference Bureau to inform the Legislature of all reports that were not timely submitted; and

(4) Governmental agencies that submit reports to include certain information to facilitate the Legislative Reference Bureau's timely reporting of the submission of those reports.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Your Committee finds that it is necessary to establish a streamlined system that accurately informs the Legislature of departments, agencies, and offices that are not meeting reporting requirements. The Legislative Reference Bureau already has an approximate compilation of required reports, so it is the appropriate entity to create a spreadsheet outlining more detailed information about the reports. This measure requires the Legislative Reference Bureau to create a spreadsheet of all reports required for submission, so the Legislature can accurately track and oversee that reports are properly and timely submitted.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the Legislative Reference Bureau shall make the spreadsheet available to the Legislature after the forty-five day veto override period has elapsed and again by the first day of each regular session, rather than twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session; and

(2) 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 Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 502, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 502, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Government Operations,

________________________________

LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair