STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2865

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1974

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1974, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VETERANS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to repeal the residency requirements for the burial of members of the United States Armed Forces and their dependents in veterans cemeteries, and to establish criteria consistent with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs' eligibility requirements for burial in a national or state cemetery.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Office of Veterans Services and Oahu Veterans Council.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure ensures that Hawaii's eligibility requirements for the burial of members of the United States Armed Forces and their dependents comports with the criteria established by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs regarding eligibility for burial in a national or state cemetery.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2012; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency, including amendments to section 363-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to make the section temporarily ineffective from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2015.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1974, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1974, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,

 

 

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair