Report Title:

Commission on the Status of Women; Appropriation

 

Description:

Appropriates moneys for the Hawaii state commission on the status of women for programming, travel, and office expenses.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

453

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

Making an appropriation for the state commission on the status of women.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  The mission of the Hawaii state commission on the status of women is to ensure equality for women and girls in the State by acting as a catalyst for positive change through advocacy, education, collaboration, and program development.  The duties of the Hawaii state commission on the status of women are established by statute.

     SECTION 2.  For the twelfth year, the Hawaii state commission on the status of women is organizing women's health month.  The purpose of women's health month is to maximize public awareness of women's health issues, empower women to be their own health advocates, reduce health care disparities, and promote the physical and emotional well-being of women in Hawaii.  The month of events include education workshops, health fairs, lectures, fitness activities, and other special events.

     In March 2006, the Hawaii state commission on the status of women began the process to establish a collection of Hawaii women's oral history.  Oral histories will be collected annually leading up to the women's history month in March.

     In 1998, the Center for American Women and Politics, a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, created the ready to run program as a bi-partisan effort to recruit and train women to run for all levels of political office.  The Center for American Women and Politics has made it's ready to run program available to state commissions on the status of women around the country.  The goal is to present a ready to run training workshop in 2007, at the end of the legislative session.

     The wage club project has launched a collaborative grassroots program designed to help close the wage gap between women and men at work.  The Hawaii state commission on the status of women will facilitate a series of discussion and training groups around the State to examine wage inequities with the goal of defining grassroots driven multi-faceted solutions to the problem. 

     SECTION 3.  The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funding to the Hawaii state commission on the status of women for programming, travel, and office expenses.  This appropriation is in addition to funding currently allocated to the department of human services in the amounts of $102,236 for personnel expenses and $3,044 for miscellaneous expenses.

     SECTION 4.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $53,700, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2007-2008, to the Hawaii state commission on the status of women for programming, travel, and office expenses; provided that moneys appropriated by this Act shall not be construed to diminish any other funding provided to the commission on the status of women by the department of human services or any other state source of revenue. 

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of human services for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2007.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________