STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3009

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1740

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 1740, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LANGUAGE ACCESS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to support the effective implementation and provision of language access assistance services in the State by government agencies and state-funded entities by increasing the amount of funds appropriated for fiscal year 2014-2015 for the statewide Language Access Resource Center and the multilingual website pilot project.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Office of Language Access, Office of Community Services, Filipino American Citizens League, Filipino Coalition for Solidarity, Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights, and National Federation of Filipino American Associations Region 12.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Language Access Resource Center and the multilingual website pilot project enable state and state-funded agencies to better serve Hawaii's limited English proficient population and further compliance with federal and state language access laws.  Your Committee further finds that continued and appropriate funding of the Language Access Resource Center and the multilingual website pilot project is essential to their successful and effective implementation and their usefulness to the general public.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting the following appropriation amounts proposed by the Office of Language Access for fiscal year 2014-2015:

 

     (1)  $300,000 to operate the statewide Language Access Resource Center; and

 

     (2)  $150,000 for the multilingual website pilot project.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1740, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1740, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

 

 

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair