STAND. COM. REP. NO. 482-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 2468

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 2468 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require experience gained by an intern in a state internship program to be applied toward experience needed to meet minimum qualifications for civil service positions;

(2) Authorize the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to contract with trade organizations for on-the-job training;

(3) Remove restrictive eligibility requirements for interns, aligning internship experience with civil service minimum qualification requirements;

(4) Require the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and Department of Human Resources Development to develop guidelines for participation in an internship program;

(5) Transfer certain program responsibilities to the Department of Human Resources Development; and

(6) Appropriate funds.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaiʻi System; Department of Education; Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Department of Human Resources Development; Kohala Coast Resort Association; Hawaiʻi Primary Care Association; and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii continues to face workforce shortages in public and private sectors, driven in part by limited training capacity, outdated eligibility barriers, and insufficient alignment between internship experience and minimum qualification requirements for civil service positions. Your Committee further finds that employers often lack administrative capacity to host interns and that restrictive program rules reduce opportunities for participants to transition into long-term employment. Your Committee believes that expanding training partnerships, modernizing program requirements, and ensuring internship experience counts toward minimum qualifications will create a more effective and sustainable workforce pipeline for the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Repealing language that restricted participating apprenticeship program sponsors from only providing opportunities to private sector projects;

(2) Clarifying that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations may only reimburse an employer for an intern's wage to help defray the costs of training and supervising an intern;

(3) Clarifying that an eligible intern in an On-The-Job Training Work Experience Program and eligible participant in a State Internship and Workforce Development Program shall be enrolled in a high school, rather than only a public high school;

(4) Reinstating existing statutory language requiring an eligible intern for the On-The-Job Training Work Experience Program to have earned a college or university degree within one year of applying for the internship and requiring the same for the State Internship and Workforce Development Program;

(5) Authorizing, rather than requiring, the Director of Human Resources Development to apply experience gained during an internship to meet the minimum qualifications for civil service positions;

(6) Expanding authorized uses of the appropriation to include staffing and operational support, including an unspecified number of positions;

(7) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee notes that in their testimony, the Department of Human Resources Development requested two full-time equivalent (2.0 FTE) positions for the purposes of implementing the requirements of this measure.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2468, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2468, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________

JACKSON D. SAYAMA, Chair