Bill Text: HI HB681 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Reservists and National Guardsmen; Nomination Papers and Oaths

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 18-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [HB681 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-HB681-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 820

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 681

       H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 681, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE MILITARY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow active‑duty members of the United States Army Reserve and National Guard to participate meaningfully in state government by permitting those members of the Armed Forces wishing to run for elected office to file nomination papers and take oaths by certified mail.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Defense.

 

     The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, continue to have repercussions today.  Thousands of military service members, many of whom have already completed one tour of duty, are still being deployed to volatile areas of the world.  In the ten years since the September 11 terrorist attacks, millions of American troops have been ordered overseas, and thousands of soldiers from the Schofield Barracks-based 25th Infantry Division have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

     Your Committee finds that the State bears a special responsibility to its citizen-soldiers in the Army Reserves and National Guard.  In particular, active-duty reservists and national guardsmen who wish to run for elected office should be allowed to file nomination papers and take their oaths by mail.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 681, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

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

 

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair