STAND. COM. REP. NO.864

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 1489

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1489, S.D. 1, entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the student legislative participation pilot project.

Your Committee finds that it is important to involve and educate Hawai`i's youth about the political process. Your Committee believes this bill will encourage students to become civically responsible by instilling familiarity and an understanding of the system. This bill will involve two hundred fifty students from schools statewide, to expand the range of student participation in the legislature through on-line discussions, video conferencing, and other technological means. Additional students can be added if additional private funding is secured. The project will be led by a steering committee appointed by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, which will include representatives from the Hawaii state student council, the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, student conference leaders, and others. The Legislative Reference Bureau will staff the project and present an interim and final report.

Your Committee has amended the bill by making the amounts of the appropriation blank to further discussion.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1489, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1489, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair