Bill Text: HI SB1339 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Rural Areas; Federal Programs

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2013-06-25 - Act 144, 6/21/2013 (Gov. Msg. No. 1247). [SB1339 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-SB1339-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 163

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1339

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 1339 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RURAL AREAS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a definition of rural that would protect existing programs in remote areas of the State, such as the critical access hospital designation for Kahuku Medical Center, and expand opportunities for other communities that are designated as rural within the State but do not otherwise meet federal definitions to qualify as such.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Kahuku Medical Center and two individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that the 2010 Census determined that Oahu no longer contains any areas that federally qualify as rural.  This endangers Kahuku Medical Center's designation as a critical access hospital and disqualifies all communities on Oahu from participating in federal rural programs.  Since 2010, rural communities in Hawaii have qualified for $1,890,000 in federal grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration's Office of Rural Health Policy alone, with about half going to Oahu.  With the release of the latest census figures, communities on Oahu no longer qualify for these and other federal programs.

 

     While the federal definitions of rural will keep some communities from participating in federal programs, there are several federal programs that recognize state definitions of rural.  This measure establishes a state definition of rural that would protect existing programs in remote areas of the State.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1339 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 Water and Land and Agriculture,

 

____________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair		____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair