STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2304

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2305

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2305 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MISSING PERSONS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to establish a Silver Alert Program within the Department of Law Enforcement to help locate and safeguard missing persons who are sixty-five years of age or older, cognitively impaired, or developmentally disabled.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services; Department of Law Enforcement; Executive Office on Aging; Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities; Kokua Council; United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO; Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute; Hawaiʻi Public Health Association; Hawaiʻi Primary Care Association; Hawaii Disability Rights Center; Hawaii Family Caregiver Coalition; Alzheimer's Association; Hawaiʻi Parkinson Association; Hawaii Alliance for Retired Americans; Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi; UNITE HERE! Local 5; AARP Hawaiʻi; Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSME Local 152, AFL-CIO; Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs; Pono Consulting; Papa Ola Lokahi; and nineteen individuals.

Your Committees find that more than half of states nationwide have established silver alert programs that help identify missing individuals with cognitive impairments, developmental disabilities, or the elderly. Your Committees further find that the State must protect vulnerable kupuna and persons with cognitive impairments or developmental disabilities who are missing. This measure will provide immediate information to the public, facilitate a prompt response, and enhance the chances of locating an individual with a developmental disability, cognitive impairment, or who is sixty-five years of age or older.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2042, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) 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 Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2305, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2305, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Health and Human Services,

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair