STAND. COM. REP. NO.1073

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.B. No. 214

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 214, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VETERAN BURIAL GRANTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to:

(1) Provide grants to conduct funeral and burial services for deceased World War II Filipino veterans, and for transporting the remains of these deceased veterans to the Philippines, in situations not currently addressed by the Office of Veterans Services (OVS); and

(2) Appropriate an unspecified amount for burial grants for World War II Filipino veterans.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from OVS, a member of the Veterans Advisory Board, and concerned members of the WWII Fil-Am Veterans, Hawaii Chapter.

 

Your Committee finds that the Veterans Benefits and Health Care Improvement Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-419) slightly conflicts with this measure in the form it was received. Specifically, the Act allows for many of the Filipino veterans to be interred in State and federal veteran cemeteries just as other qualified veterans are. Therefore, as received, this measure would improperly provide a certain class of veterans a transportation benefit not offered to other veteran survivors.

Upon further consideration, your Committee has worked in conjunction with OVS to amend this bill to provide grants only to survivors of those Filipino veterans who were excluded by the Act. This class of survivors would include Filipino veterans who enlisted in the New Filipino Scouts between October 6, 1945, and June 30, 1947. Your Committee has also amended this measure to appropriate $100,000 for burial grants for the qualifying veterans.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 214, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 214, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs,

____________________________

NESTOR GARCIA, Chair