STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2927

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3123

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 3123, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ACCESS TO VITAL RECORDS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Authorize the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to access vital records for purposes of verifying native Hawaiian ancestry for beneficiary programs; and

(2) Require the Department of Health and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement to assure appropriate access and handling of confidential records and sealed records that have been unsealed pursuant to court order.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Department of Health, and Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that, pursuant to existing law and administrative rules, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands must verify the requisite amounts of native Hawaiian or Hawaiian lineage for beneficiaries. The current length for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to receive vital records once requested is approximately four to six weeks. This measure will ease certain administrative inefficiencies for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and directly benefit beneficiaries, who suffer the most when the requirement to obtain, and then verify, certain records delays requests to transfer their application or lease rights.

Your Committee has amended this measure by clarifying that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is authorized to access vital records for purposes of verifying Native Hawaiian ancestry for beneficiary programs.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3123, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3123, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair