STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2660

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                   

 

RE:     S.B. No. 2248

        S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2248 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds and require the Department of Human Services to establish a service pilot program for neighbor islands to provide services and training for blind and visually impaired residents to take effect on July 1, 2020, and end on June 30, 2021.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Mayor of the County of Hawaii and Hawaii Disability Rights Center.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

 

     Your Committees find that thousands of Hawaii residents experience visual disabilities that hamper daily living and that may lead to conditions of isolation, limited productivity, loss of independence, and lack of social integration.  Your Committees further find that training, adjustments to blindness services, and transportation services receive state and local support based on economies of scale.

 

     Your Committees also find that a supplemental service plan is needed to provide additional support services for neighbor island residents who are blind and visually impaired.  Your Committees note the suggestion posed by the Department of Human Services to extend the duration of the pilot program to allow enough time to implement and evaluate the program's effectiveness.

 

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by extending the completion of the pilot program from June 30, 2021, to June 31, 2022.  Your Committees further amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2248, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2248, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health,

 

________________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

 

________________________________

RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair