STAND. COM. REP. NO. 570

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: H.B. No. 1353

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor & Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 1353 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds:

(1) For unemployment insurance specialist and unemployment insurance assistant positions within the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to prepare and support the unemployment insurance modernization project; and

(2) To upgrade and modernize the unemployment insurance system.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Transform Hawai‘i Government, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that the inadequacies of the existing unemployment insurance system were acutely apparent when the economic shutdown resulting from the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic led to the filing of unprecedented numbers of claims that overwhelmed the system. Upgrades to and modernization of the system are long overdue. This measure provides supplemental funds for the modernization project and an appropriation for fifteen vacant positions within the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations for the unemployment insurance program to ensure that the community continues to be served.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriations to unspecified amounts; and

(2) Changing the effective date to June 30, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $1,961,260 to fill the fifteen vacant positions within the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and $36,000,000 for upgrading and modernizing the unemployment insurance system.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1353, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1353, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________

SCOT Z. MATAYOSHI, Chair