STAND. COM. REP. NO.2142

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2761

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2761 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VITAL STATISTICS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide for a consistent fee structure for permits relating to burial and disinterment administered by the Department of Health and to provide funds to help automate and modernize the process of registering death events with the Department of Health.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that current law does not allow for the assessment of fees for the issuance of burial-transit permits, but a $5 fee is assessed for disinterment permits. This measure authorizes a fee of $20 for either permit type. One-half of the fees will be deposited into the vital statistics improvement special fund and the remainder to the general fund.

Your Committee finds that the increased revenues for the vital statistics improvement special fund will allow the request and issuance of burial-transit and disinterment permits to become primarily electronic, resulting in quicker and more convenient means of obtaining permits for the disposition of a dead body and re-burial of human remains in the State. Your Committee further finds that the Department of Health will be able to administer the burial-transit and disinterment permits system more efficiently by eliminating the need for in-person or mail-in request and issuance of these permits.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive changes.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2761, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2761, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health and Human Services,

____________________________

DAVID MATSUURA, Chair