STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2541

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2567

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 2567 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 the Legislative Research Bureau to create a searchable electronic database of all reports that are mandated by law or by concurrent resolution. The database shall include submissions that are late or not submitted at all. The measure also requires the reporting entities to include certain information in their reports for purposes of this Act.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Your Committee finds that the Legislative Reference Bureau tracks approximately three hundred sixty-one reports each year and provides much of the information required by this measure. Your Committee finds that creating a web-based electronic searchable database of all reports submitted to the Legislative Research Bureau would be far more effective in enabling legislators, the Executive branch, and the general public to readily access reported information and identify gaps in reporting.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Consolidating the reporting requirements to one time per year on a date no later than ten days after the convening of each legislative session;

(2) Directing the Legislative Reference Bureau to create a searchable report database on their website, which provides a link to the report and certain required information required by Section 3 of this measure;

(3) Requiring that any report that a government agency is required to submit to the legislature also be available digitally;

(4) Adding an appropriation to the Legislative Reference Bureau in an unspecified amount for the creation of this database; and

(5) 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. 2567, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2567, 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,

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LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair