STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1160

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 723

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 723, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PANDEMIC RESPONSE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the use of funds appropriated from the emergency and budget reserve fund, from the amounts received by the State from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, for the purchase and distribution of personal protective equipment and industrial hygiene products to state departments and attached agencies.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Department of Health, State Procurement Office, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Office of Community Services, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, and Hawaii Primary Care Association.

 

     Your Committee finds that the CARES Act provided significant and much needed funds to the State in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.  In Act 9, Session Laws of Hawaii 2020, the Legislature appropriated $100,000,000 of CARES Act funding, later amended to $61,000,000 by the Governor, for the purchase and distribution of personal protective equipment to hospitals, childcare facilities, elderly care facilities, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and schools.  This measure expands current legislation to allow for the purchase of industrial hygiene products and allows all state departments and attached agencies to purchase those products.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Making it effective upon its approval; and

 

     (2)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 723, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 723, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

 

 

________________________________

JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair