STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2048

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2518

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2518 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MOTOR AND OTHER VEHICLES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Extend the validity of the driver's license of an accompanying dependent of an active duty member of the United States Armed Forces that expires while the member is deployed overseas; and

 

     (2)  Authorize any active duty member of the United States Armed Forces or accompanying dependent to use a valid Status of Forces Agreement driver's license until receipt of a valid state-issued driver's license, if the member or dependent's driver's license expired while the member was deployed overseas.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Honolulu Department of Customer Services and three individuals.  Testimony in opposition was submitted by one individual.

 

     Your Committees find that the Status of Forces Agreement is valid only during the period that a state-issued driver's license is valid and only while the servicemember or servicemember's dependent is stationed in a foreign country.  It is not the intent of your Committees to impose hardship on deployed servicemembers or their dependents, but federal law supersedes state law.

 

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting the reference to "in-country" in the title of section 286-106.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

 

     (2)  Deleting the provision that allows the use of a Status of Forces Agreement after the expiration of a driver's license.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2518, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2518, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair

 

____________________________

J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair