STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2976

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2374

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 2374 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE OFFICE OF LANGUAGE ACCESS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to transfer the Office of Language Access from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to the Department of Health as an administratively attached agency.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Office of Language Access, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Office of Language Access Advisory Council; Catholic Charities Hawaii; Congress of Visayan Organizations; Inter-Agency Council for Immigrant and Refugee Services; and one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Resources Development.

 

     Your Committees find that the transfer of the Office of Language Access from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to the Department of Health will enable the Department of Health to provide a broader base of support and allow for a more effective and efficient use of resources to provide vital language services to the more than 140,000 limited-English-proficient individuals in the State.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2374, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Judiciary and Labor,

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair