March 4, 2016
Sugaronline | http://goo.gl/Bp0cJi
With the Legislature's crossover deadline one week away, the House passed a numbers of bills Thursday and sent them to the Senate for consideration, according to Hawaii's KHON TV.
Among the House bills passing third reading by the full House were measures that provides assistance to dislocated sugar workers from Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company on Maui, addresses Hawaii's chronic housing shortage, creates a Transit Oriented Development authority, and establishes a veterans' services counselor position within the Office of Veterans' Services to assist all veterans, with a primary focus on female veterans.
"One of our top priorities among the many needs that we are addressing in this session is providing immediate assistance to the sugar workers on Maui who will lose their jobs with the end of sugar production at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.," said House Speaker Joseph M. Souki (Kahakuloa, Waihee, Waiehu, Puuohala, Wailuku, Waikapu). "This measure will help ensure that the affected workers and their families are provided every opportunity to transition smoothly through this difficult and unsettling time."
HB2186, HD1 directs and appropriates funds for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to provide workforce development, worker training and retraining, and other dislocated worker assistance programs for workers affected by the cessation of sugar production on Maui.