Bill Text: HI SB893 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Telephone-based Audible Information Access Service; Appropriation
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-04-13 - (H) Received notice of all Senate conferees being discharged (Sen. Com. No. 747). [SB893 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2012-SB893-Amended.html
STAND. COM. REP. NO. 378
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 893
S.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 Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 893 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INFORMATION ACCESS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to direct the Public Utilities Commission to establish and maintain a telephone-based information access service to provide access to periodical print media.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the League of Women Voters of Hawaii, NFB-Newsline, National Federation of the Blind of Hawai‘i, NFB of Honolulu, and six private individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services, the Disability and Communications Access Board, and the Public Utilities Commission.
Your Committee finds that timely access to periodical media is essential to enable blind and visually impaired persons to fully participate as literate and informed members of society. Your Committee notes that the National Federation for the Blind's Newsline service provides access to local and national daily newspapers, magazines, job listings, and government information. Your Committee further finds that Newsline listings of government information such as public hearings satisfy the accessibility requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act for public information.
Your Committee also finds that after discussion on this measure with relevant government agencies and stakeholders, all parties are in agreement that the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and Services for the Blind of the Department of Human Services, which currently administers Newsline services, is the appropriate agency to continue to oversee that program.
Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and replacing them with provisions to:
(1) Add a new section to chapter 347, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to codify the administration of Newsline services by the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and Services for the Blind; and
(2) Appropriate funds to the Vocational Rehabilitation and Services for the Blind Division of the Department of Human Services, for expenditure pursuant to the authority granted by section 347-10, Hawaii Revised Statues, known as "the Ho‘opono fund" to contract to provide Newsline services in the State.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 893, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 893, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,
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____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair |
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