RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS.
SB606 amends section 26-9 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes governing the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA). The bill largely restates and consolidates DCCA’s existing statutory authority over consumer protection, licensing, investigations, rulemaking, fee-setting, complaint handling, and the administration of numerous boards, commissions, and regulatory programs. It also expressly requires the director of DCCA to make all business registration applications available online and to ensure those applications include the registering entity’s name and contact information, including phone number, email address, and mailing address.
Beyond the online application requirement, the bill reinforces DCCA’s authority to manage compliance and enforcement through hearings officers, investigators, advisory committees, and a compliance resolution fund. It authorizes the department to collect and adjust various fees, deposit revenues into the compliance resolution fund, contract for testing services, use alternative forms of security when required bonds or insurance are not reasonably available, and change license renewal dates by rule. The bill also creates a special subaccount for post-secondary education authorization fees and requires an annual report on fund use.
SB606 would amend the statutory framework for DCCA in chapter 26 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, but its most visible policy change is the requirement that business registration applications be available online and include specified contact information. It would also continue and clarify DCCA’s broad administrative and enforcement powers over licensing, consumer complaints, and regulated industries, while preserving the existing structure of boards and commissions placed within the department for administrative purposes. The bill affects businesses, licensees, applicants, and regulated professions that interact with DCCA, particularly those using the business registration system and those subject to compliance, fee, and renewal requirements.
The available context suggests the bill was not controversial in the sense of generating recorded debate or votes, but it did not advance immediately; the Senate Committee on CPN deferred the measure. The bill’s stated purpose and report title indicate a practical, administrative focus on digitizing business registration and improving the completeness of application data. Overall, the measure appears to have been treated as a DCCA modernization and administrative efficiency bill rather than a major policy overhaul.
No committee transcript or vote record is provided, so specific objections are not documented. Based on the text, any potential points of contention would likely center on the breadth of DCCA’s authority, the fee-setting and fund-dedication provisions, and the requirement that business applicants provide more contact information online. Stakeholders most likely to care include businesses and registrants subject to DCCA filing requirements, regulated professions and boards under DCCA oversight, and any parties concerned about administrative burden, privacy, or the department’s expanded operational discretion.