STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3073

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2180

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Higher Education and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 2180, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

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

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to establish Hawaiian language resources for the Judiciary.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary, Hawaiian Language Web Feasibility Task Force, Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, Aha Punana Leo, Kamehameha Schools, and fourteen individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from two individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that the Judiciary Hawaiian Language Web Feasibility Task Force proposed a plan to establish Hawaiian language resources in the Judiciary by translating versions of various Judiciary webpages, establishing education programs, and adding positions for Judiciary resource staff.  Your Committees further find that while the number of Hawaiian language speakers has increased over the past few decades, few individuals have Hawaiian language expertise in the fields of governance, law, business, and health due, in part, to the lack of demand for these positions.  Your Committees find that funding the plan proposed by the task force will help revitalize the Hawaiian language by providing opportunities for the native Hawaiian language to be used in a professional environment.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by removing its contents and inserting the contents of S.B. No. 2162, S.D. 2, Regular Session of 2016, thereby:

 

     (1)  Adding a Hawaiian language translation of the measure contents;

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2016; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Higher Education and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2180, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2180, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Higher Education and the Arts,

 

________________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair

 

________________________________

MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair