Bill Text: HI SB2394 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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

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Bill Title: Consumer Protection; Lending Practices; Military Members; Distressed Residential Properties Program

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-04-26 - (S) Conference committee meeting to reconvene on 04-27-12 12:45PM in conference room 312. [SB2394 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2394-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2054

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2394

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2394 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONSUMER PROTECTION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to enforce certain federal laws that protect military members and their families from abusive lending practices.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Consumer Protection; United States Department of Defense; Military Officers Association of America, Hawaii Chapter; Oahu Veterans Center; and The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that members of our armed forces and their dependents have enough to worry about, including multiple overseas deployments, coping with a spouse's prolonged absence from home, and the lack of an adequate support system while residing on military bases throughout the country.  This can lead to a great deal of emotional and financial stress.

 

     Your Committee believes that service members and their families may be particularly vulnerable to unscrupulous lenders who may charge excessive fees and interest rates, make loans without regard to the borrower's ability to repay, refinance a borrower's loans repeatedly over a short period of time without any gain for the borrower, and commit outright fraud or deception.

 

     This measure allows the Office of Consumer Protection to enforce certain federal laws that protect military members from predatory and unscrupulous lending practices that appear to target military personnel.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     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 S.B. No. 2394, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2394, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

 

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

 

		____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair