STAND. COM. REP. NO. 392

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 713

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 713 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE EMERGENCY ENVIRONMENTAL WORKFORCE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to continue the Emergency Environmental Workforce Program and to provide for the continuation of the program during periods of warfare or significant economic hardship.

 

     Comments were submitted by one organization.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Emergency Environmental Workforce program established by Act 4, Third Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2001, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, was successful in providing short-term employment to recently laid-off workers and significantly reducing the number of miconia and other invasive plant species, and coqui frog and fire ant populations.

 

     Your Committee further finds that the current economic downturn and subsequent employment losses require cost-efficient, creative solutions such as the Emergency Environmental Workforce program.

 

     Your Committee finds that the requirement to employ approximately four hundred to four hundred fifty individuals who were terminated from their jobs is restrictive.  Your Committee further finds that this estimate should be determined as the Legislature further debates this matter with the intent of providing the Emergency Environmental Workforce with greater hiring flexibility.

 

     Your Committee finds that the amount of the appropriation to continue Emergency Environmental Workforce services should also be determined as the Legislature further debates this matter.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure as follows:

 

     (1)  By leaving the estimated number of individuals required to be hired unspecified;

 

     (2)  By amending the effective date to July 1, 2050, for the purpose of encouraging further discussion; and

 

     (3)  By making technical, nonsubstantive stylistic changes, and amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     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 S.B. No. 713, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 713, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

DWIGHT Y. TAKAMINE, Chair