Ige Signs 18 Bills in Tuesday’s Signing Ceremonies

Governor David Ige signed a series of bills into law on Tuesday, June 25, 2019 ranging from kupuna care to homelessness, mental health, traffic safety, elections and health care.

State of Hawaiʻi Governor David Ige signed a total of 18 bills on Tuesday, June 25, 2019. PC: The Office of the Governor.

The bills signed into law on Tuesday, June 25, 2019 are as follows:

Kupuna Care Package

• ACT 123 — HB465 Relating to Aging: Makes an appropriation to the department of health to provide funding for the kupuna care program.
• ACT 124 — HB468 Relating to the Health Aging Partnership Program: Appropriates funds for the healthy aging partnership program to further the program’s role in improving the health and well-being of Hawaiʻi’s kupuna.
• ACT 125 — HB471 Relating to Aging: Establishes quorum requirements for the Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs.
• ACT 126 — SB1025 Relating to the Kupuna Caregivers Program: Requires the Executive Office on Aging (EOA) to develop and implement a plan to maximize the number of Kupuna Caregivers Program (Program) participants and submit a copy of the Program plan to the 2020 Legislature. Authorizes EOA to adopt administrative rules to implement and administer the Program. Changes the Program funding allocation cap. Includes coordination or case management under the scope of services qualified caregivers can receive program funding for. Appropriates funds.
• ACT 127 — SB366 Relating to Health: Appropriates funds to the Executive Office on Aging to fund the existing position of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Services Coordinator. Exempts the position from civil service and collective bargaining.

Homelessness & Mental Health

• ACT 128 — HB257 Relating to Homelessness: Authorizes the use of private lands for the Ohana Zones Pilot Program. Provides additional time for the implementation of the Ohana Zones Pilot Program to June 30, 2023. Extends the Emergency Department Homelessness Assessment Pilot Program and the Medical Respite Pilot Program to June 30, 2020. Appropriates funds.
• ACT 129 — SB1124 Relating to Mental Health: Requires a licensed psychiatrist or advanced practice registered nurse with prescriptive authority and psychiatric specialization to determine, prior to a person’s discharge from a psychiatric facility, whether an assisted community treatment plan is indicated and to make certain arrangements if so indicated. Amends the criteria for assisted community treatment.
• ACT 130 — SB567 Relating to Mental Health Treatment: Appropriates funds for program ID HTH420 for the Department of Health to contract for legal assistance with petitions for assisted community treatment and related court proceedings.

Traffic Safety

• ACT 131 — SB663 Relating to Highway Safety: Establishes within the DOT a red light running committee to develop policy for pilot programs in the C&C of Honolulu, and Counties of Maui, Kauai, and Hawaiʻi.
• ACT 132 — SB98 Relating to Crosswalk Safety: Clarifies the requirement that a driver of a motor vehicle yield to or stop for a pedestrian by specifying when a pedestrian is considered to be within an intersection or adjacent crosswalk or crossing the roadway within a crosswalk.
• ACT 133 — SB693 Relating to Statewide Traffic Code: Clarifies what pedestrians are required to do when in a crosswalk while a countdown timer is operating.
• ACT 134 — HB757 Relating to Transportation: Requires DOT and county transportation departments to adopt Vision Zero policies to prevent and eliminate traffic fatalities. Requires the State Highway Safety Council, in consultation with the counties, to review traffic policies and recommendations to prevent traffic fatalities, develop an action plan, and report to the Legislature.

Elections

• ACT 135 — SB216 Relating to Elections: Requires a mandatory recount of election votes and ballot measures when the margin of victory for election contests or tabulation for ballot measures is equal to or less than one hundred or one-quarter of one per cent of the votes cast, whichever is greater.
• ACT 136 — HB1248 Relating to Elections: Enacts voting by mail uniformly across all counties for all elections commencing in 2020. Establishes a limited number of voter service centers that would remain open from the tenth business day preceding an election through the day of the election to receive personal delivery of mail-in ballots, accommodate voters with special needs, offer same day registration and voting, and provide other election services. Allows for additional places of deposit for personal delivery of mail-in ballots. Appropriates funds for the implementation and administration of the election by mail program. Requires the Office of Elections to submit a report to the legislature before the convening of each regular session from 2020 through 2025, regarding the implementation of a vote by mail system.
• ACT 137 — HB168 Relating to the Electronic Transmission of Ballots: Authorizes a voter with special needs, including a disability, to request that a ballot be forwarded by electronic transmission at any time.

Health

• ACT 138 — SB549 Relating to Healthy Beverages for Children: Requires restaurants that sell children’s meals that include a beverage to make the default beverage a healthy beverage.
• ACT 139 — SB1246 Relating to Telehealth: Establishes goals for the adoption and proliferation of telehealth to increase health care access. Establishes the State Strategic Telehealth Advisory Council and permanent State Telehealth and Health Care Access Coordinator position. Dissolves the Advisory Council on 7/1/2022. Establishes the Telehealth Administrative Simplification Working Group to research, make recommendations, and report to the Legislature. Appropriates funds.
• ACT 140 — HB1453 Relating to Emergency Medical Services: Authorizes the DOH to establish fees for ground transportation to medical facilities and for provision of emergency medical services that do not include transport. Authorizes transportation by ambulance to medical facilities other than hospital emergency departments. Authorizes Medicaid programs to provide coverage for health care provided by emergency medical services personnel.

In addition, Gov. Ige signed the following bills last Thursday and Friday.

Signed June 20, 2019

• ACT 101 – HB1157 Relating to Post-Secondary Education Student Immunizations: Exempts students in post-secondary education programs from immunization requirements if they attend classes exclusively online or through distance learning, under certain conditions.

Signed June 21, 2019

• ACT 102 – HB349 Relating to International Yoga Day: Designates June 21 of each year as International Yoga Day.
• ACT 103 – SB754 Relating to Agriculture: Enacts produce safety rules in accordance with the federal Food and Drug Administration Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption.
• ACT 104 – HB463 Relating to Food Safety: Requires and appropriates funds to the Department of Agriculture to partner with the Hawaii agricultural community to establish a Food Safety Certification Training Program to assist small to medium sized farms to comply with the United States Department of Agriculture Good Agricultural Practices Certification Program.
• ACT 105 – SB1342 Relating to the Probate Code: Requires the Chief Justice to study and analyze the national landscape of donative transfer statutes and suggest revisions to Hawaii’s donative transfer law.
• ACT 106 – HB297 Relating to Mosquito Vector Control: Directs DOA to review the Aedes aegypti mosquito with Wolbachia bacteria, including Aedes aegypti mosquitoes originating from Hawaii stock that could be imported for landscape scale mosquito control, and render a determination to place it on the appropriate animal import list. Requires DOA, DOH, and DLNR to collaborate on a report to the Legislature with recommendations for appropriate vector control programs.
• ACT 107 – SB197 Relating to Campaign Finance: Exempts candidates who are deemed elected, running unopposed, or unsuccessful after a primary or special primary election from the prohibition on donating excess campaign funds for charitable or scholarship purposes before the general election date.
• ACT 108 – SB852 Relating to Restitution for Victims of Crime: Clarifies that lost earnings, mental health treatment, counseling, and therapy are eligible for reimbursement to a crime victim as a result of a defendant’s offense.
• ACT 109 – SB144 Relating to lobbyists: Removes restriction on access to transcripts from public contested hearings. Removes statutory remnants from when violations of the lobbyist law resulted in criminal penalties. Allows the state ethics commission to assess an administrative fine pursuant to a settlement agreement.
• ACT 110 – HB1307 Relating to an Office of Administrative Hearings: Requires the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) to submit a report to the Legislature regarding the existing administrative hearings process in the State and the potential for a centralized office of administrative hearings. Requires state departments and agencies to provide statistical, non-confidential information on contested case hearings to LRB. Requires LRB to research centralized administrative hearings offices in other jurisdictions.
• ACT 111 – HB1268 Relating to Statutory Revision: Amending or repealing various provisions of the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes and the Session Laws of Hawai‘i for the purpose of correcting errors and references, clarifying language, and deleting obsolete or unnecessary provisions
• ACT 112 – HB903 Relating to the Judiciary: Requires the Judiciary to establish a financial hardship task force.
• ACT 113 – HB116 Relating to the State Budget: Appropriates funds for the operating budget of the Executive Branch for fiscal years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021
• ACT 114 – HB807 Relating to Offenses Against Public Administration: Amends the misdemeanor offense of unsworn falsification to authorities to include knowingly making a false statement to a state investigator or county inspector in certain circumstances.
• ACT 115 – HB546 Relating to Intoxicating Liquor: Allows a class 18 small craft producer pub licensee to manufacture not more than 70,000 barrels of malt beverages on the licensee’s premises during the license year. Clarifies that a class 14 brewpub licensee or class 18 small craft producer pub licensee may conduct certain activities at satellite locations other than the licensee’s primary manufacturing premises under certain conditions. Clarifies the definition of “growler”.
• ACT 116 – HB1070 Relating to Education: Provides that a public school shall not be required by the Department of Education to expend its own school funds to maintain any geographically disadvantageous land on or adjacent to its property. Appropriates funds for teacher stipends for the Grow Our Own Teachers Initiative. Appropriates funds for the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board.
• ACT 117 – HB507 Relating to Search Warrants: Authorizes a judge or magistrate to approve a search warrant based on sworn oral statements or electronic communications. Effective 1/1/2020.
• ACT 118 – HB356 Relating to Claims Against the State: Increases the Comptroller’s settlement authority for tort and automobile claims to $25,000.
• ACT 119 – HB170 Relating to Ethics: Clarifies application of the fair treatment and conflict of interest laws with respect to legislators and task force members.
• ACT 120 – HB169 Relating to the state Ethics Code: Clarifies provisions of the State Ethics Code regarding gift disclosure statements, retention of financial disclosure statements, transcripts from contested case hearings, and ethics training.
• ACT 121 – SB1417 Relating to Filipino Veterans Burial Assistance: Appropriates funds for burial grants for qualifying Filipino-American World War II veterans to provide funeral and burial services and transportation of their remains to the Philippines, subject to certain conditions.
• ACT 122 – HB852 Relating to the Hawai‘i State Energy Office: Establishes the Hawai‘i State Energy Office and Chief Energy Officer position in Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. Repeals Director of DBEDT’s function as Energy Resources Coordinator and Renewable Energy Facilitator. Transfers Coordinator, Facilitator, and existing DBEDT energy office employees and functions to the Office. Amends allowable uses and funding amount of the Energy Security Special Fund. Appropriates operating funds and establishes position ceilings for the Office. Appropriates funds for a carbon pricing study.