Women’s group sets
By Pat Omandam
legislative goals
Star-BulletinWelfare reform, pay equity and long-term care. These are some issues being pushed by the Hawaii Women's Coalition as part of its 2000 legislative package.
"We believe there is no single organization that will speak on these issues, these issues of women," said coalition Co-Chairwoman Annelle Amaral.
The 10-year-old group represents some 200 groups and individuals interested in legislative issues that impact the lives of women and girls in Hawaii.
Among the measures backed by the group this session is a bill to update the poverty income level used by the state to determine welfare assistance.
Member Nancy Aleck said that the state's cash assistance to needy families is based on 1993 federal levels of income, and instead should be updated to 2000 levels.
By doing so, this would increase monthly welfare assistance to $494 for an individual, up from the existing $388. Aleck estimates there are about 22,000 people receiving such welfare assistance.
Another measure supported by the group would require criminal background checks for workers at adult residential care homes, similar to what is now required of child-care workers. The goal is to protect the elderly.
Coalition member Naomi Fujimoto added that the group also wants to repeal health care provisions that exclude pregnant women from all health care directives.
As it stands now, pregnant women are denied a right to appoint someone to administer their health care directives, which Fujimoto said is unconstitutional.
Allicyn Hikida Tasaka said there were 66 bills last session that dealt with women and girls. Of those, 57 bills were signed into law. Some of them include allowing women to breast-feed in workplaces and increasing mammogram screening to once a year from every other year.
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