STAND. COM. REP. NO. 399________

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 266
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was
referred H.B. No. 266 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NEW MOTHERS BREASTFEEDING
     PROMOTION AND PROTECTION ACT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to:

     (1)  Require the State Commission on the Status of Women to
          accumulate, compile, and publish information about
          instances of discrimination involving breastfeeding or
          expressing breastmilk in the workplace; and

     (2)  Prohibit employers or labor organizations to refuse to
          hire, discharge, or withhold pay, demote or penalize a
          lactating woman who breastfeeds or extracts expressed
          breastmilk in the workplace.

     The Department of Health, Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies
Coalition of Hawaii, and members of the public supported this
measure.

     Your Committee finds that breastfeeding is a natural
function that provides perfect food for infants.  The advantages
of breastfeeding are indisputable and include nutritional,
immunological, and psychological benefits for both infant and
mother.  In Hawaii, a high percentage of women attempt to
breastfeed their infants in the hospital, but by their six-week

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 399________
                                 Page 2

 
postpartum check, the rate quickly declines.  Your Committee
finds that this decline is caused in part by mothers returning to
the workforce soon after delivery because of Hawaii's high cost
of living and employers' lack of support for breastfeeding.  This
measure addresses this problem by promoting the practice of
breastfeeding in the workplace via statutory recognition that it
is a discriminatory practice to penalize a breastfeeding
employee.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by making technical,
nonsubstantive changes for purposes of style, clarity, and
consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Labor and Public Employment that is attached to this
report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose
of H.B. No. 266, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass
Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 266, H.D.
1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian
Affairs.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Labor and Public
                                   Employment,



                                   ______________________________
                                   TERRY NUI YOSHINAGA, Chair