STAND

STAND. COM. REP. 1050

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 1255

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 1255, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL INSPECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to make the Department of Agriculture (DOA) more responsive to the needs of the agricultural industry by, among other things:

(1) Authorizing DOA to:

(A) Enter into cooperative agreements with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) or other agreements and contracts with private parties or other governmental agencies to audit and certify that applicants are following good agricultural, handling, processing, and manufacturing practices;

(B) Designate any employee or agent of DOA to conduct the audits and certification at the request of persons having a financial interest in the business or product;

(C) Employ, under part VII of chapter 147, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), temporary staff to assist in certification and auditing services and to charge fees to cover the cost of the temporary staff; and

(D) Enter into cooperative agreements with USDA for the purposes of grading beef, pork, mutton, and lamb carcasses;

(2) Requiring DOA to fix, assess, and collect fees, established under cooperative agreement with USDA, other governmental agencies, or by rule, for the audit and certification services established under (1)(A);

(3) Repealing certain sections relating to certifying agency and seed certification of chapter 150, HRS, relating to the Hawaii Seed Law, and establishing DOA as the official state agency for certifying the genetic purity, identity, quality, and condition of seeds under chapter 147, HRS, relating to Grades and Standards;

(4) Changing the revolving fund used by DOA to provide inspection services for federal marketing order programs into a Certification Services Revolving Fund (CSRF) under part VII of chapter 147, HRS, to support certification or audit services for:

(A) Fresh fruits and vegetables;

(B) Flower and foliage exportation; and

(5) Requiring moneys derived from certification or audit services provided by temporary staff or from charges for traveling expenses or extraordinary services to be deposited into the CSRF; and

(6) Repealing the Coffee Inspection Revolving Fund and transferring its unexpended balance, as of June 30, 2003, to the credit of the CSRF.

DOA supported this bill.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Deleting references, under part VII of chapter 147, HRS, to temporary "staff" and replacing them with references to temporary "inspectors" under the provisions relating to fees for certification and audit services and the provisions relating to the CSRF;

(2) Clarifying that DOA shall fix, assess, and collect fees for certification or audit services provided by temporary inspectors employed under part VII of chapter 147, HRS; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of style and clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1255, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1255, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture,

		____________________________ FELIPE P. ABINSAY, JR., Chair