STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1253

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 718

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Labor, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 718, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Human Services to compile data and identify employers that have numerous employees enrolled in public assistance programs so that the legislature and other policy makers will have a deeper understanding of the causes and sources of underemployment and poverty wages, and the resulting economic impacts on society, business, and the state budget.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest.

Your Committees find that public assistance programs are essential to ensure that all residents have access to healthy food, quality health insurance, basic needs, cash assistance, child care, and income supports. Your Committees also find that some employers may be abusing public assistance programs by providing their employees with low wages and poor benefits with the intention or expectation that the employees will enroll in public assistance programs to subsidize their income. Further, your Committees believe that large, profitable employers should pay wages and benefits that do not impoverish workers or shift costs to taxpayers. Your Committees also note that the Departments of Human Services and Labor and Industrial Relations should modify and strengthen their current data sharing agreement.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting reporting dates for the Department of Human Services;

(2) Removing the reference that the Department of Human Services comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy standards; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Labor, Culture and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 718, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 718, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Labor, Culture and the Arts,

________________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair