The Senate Committee on Labor and Technology voted Friday to advance Senate Bill 1567 with amendments, sending the measure as Senate Draft 1 with two reporting deadlines and a requested $1 million appropriation to support a contracted review of state job classifications and pay.

The bill requires the Department of Human Resources Development to complete a comprehensive review of classification and compensation for positions in the state executive branch and authorizes the department to contract with a third party without regard to HRS §103D to assist in that review. "It's been a real challenge," said Brenna Hashimoto, director of the Department of Human Resources Development, describing the agency's difficulty keeping its classification and compensation plan current for more than 1,400 classes of work.

The legislation, as amended in committee, adds two reporting deadlines: a preliminary report due 20 days prior to the 2026 regular session and a final report due 20 days prior to the following regular session. The committee also noted a requested appropriation of $1 million and set an effective date of July 1, 2050 to retain the measure's viability for later action.

Nut graf: The department told the committee it lacks capacity to update a sprawling civil-service classification plan on its own and wants authority and funding to contract for outside data and analysis. The review aims to update class specifications and minimum qualifications, modernize job descriptions and address recruitment and retention issues raised by other departments.

In testimony, Hashimoto said outside contractors could provide market data and help align internal structures with private- and public-sector pay. She said the administration's research produced contractor cost estimates between $1,200 and $2,500 per class of work; applied to about 1,400 classes, those per-class costs could total a large sum. Hashimoto also warned that the department has only one staff member assigned to this work area and that the schedule will depend on the appropriation and how the department prioritizes groups of classes.

Sen. Moriwaki pressed on timeline and scope, asking whether homogeneous groups such as nurses could be excluded to speed the work. Hashimoto said the department could prioritize and exclude certain groups and that bargaining-unit structures mean some pay schedules are uniform across large groups, which complicates targeted adjustments.

The committee limited procurement delays by making the bill subject to the procurement-exemption language referenced in HRS §103D and added the two report deadlines. Committee members voted to pass the measure with those amendments. Chair Aquino, Sen. Ihara and Sen. Moriwaki recorded aye votes; Sen. Fevella was recorded as excused.

Ending: With the committee's recommendation adopted, SB1567 moves forward to the Senate for further consideration with the committee's reported amendments and the requested appropriation noted in the record.