STAND. COM. REP. NO 683

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1144

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 1144, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify the application of the State Ethics Code to allow technology transfer activities sponsored by the University of Hawaii so long as the activities are likely to create specific benefits to the State or the public, notwithstanding the simultaneous creation of a commercial benefit or individual personal benefit.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii System, Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, and two individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that chapter 84, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), relating to the State Ethics Code, is of utmost importance to government.  However, your Committee notes that public-private partnerships undertaken by certain persons at the University of Hawaii in critical fields of technology research result in great public benefit that would be substantially constricted or become impossible to achieve without qualifying language under the State Ethics Code.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Amending section 1 to reflect the legislative finding that the University of Hawaii has established a regulatory framework and research compliance program and that the University periodically updates its policies and procedures to reflect best practices currently in place at peer institutions;

 

     (2)  Deleting section 2 and inserting language that:

 

          (A)  Creates a new section under chapter 84, HRS, to clarify that persons involved in technology transfer activities are exempt from the State Ethics Code with the qualification that these persons comply with a regulatory framework and research compliance program approved by the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii; and

 

          (B)  Adds a definition of "technology transfer activities";

 

     (3)  Requiring the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii to submit a written report to the Legislature regarding the development and implementation of its regulatory framework and research compliance program no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2016; and

 

     (4)  Changing the effective date from July 1, 2050, to January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion and establishing a sunset date of June 30, 2020.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1144, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1144, S.D. 2.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair