Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy and Environmental Protection and Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2034 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to prohibit the sale or transfer of the biological diversity and the biological resources on public lands and to establish a temporary Bioprospecting Advisory Commission (Advisory Commission) to develop a comprehensive plan for the preservation and use of these resources.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Earthjustice, Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, Ahahui Siwila Hawaii o Kapolei, Hawaii Women's Legislative Coalition, Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs and its Bioprospecting Task Force, Self-Determination Committee of the Oahu Council of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, First Unitarian Church, Hawaii Audubon Society, American Friends Service Committee, KAHEA, GMO-Free Kauai, Waikiki Hawaiian Civic Club, Ilioulaokalani Coalition, and numerous concerned citizens submitted testimony in support of this measure. Life of the Land and a concerned individual submitted testimony in support of the bill with amendments. The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and the University of Hawaii supported the intent of the bill. The Office of Information Practices commented.

Your Committees have amended this bill by:

Upon further consideration, your Committees request that subsequent committees explore alternatives to the Advisory Commission as a means to formulate independent public policy, perhaps considering a nonprofit organization such as the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs.

Your Committees further request that the Committee on Economic Development and Business Concerns review the enabling legislation for the University of Hawaii Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development in light of the suggestion that it is outdated and update it as necessary to account for modern day concerns and developments in technology.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environmental Protection and Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2034, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2034, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Economic Development and Business Concerns.