Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2477 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the Department of Agriculture to restrict the entry into the State of any items originating from Guam that have not been certified as having been inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Wildlife Services or other approved agency prior to shipment from Guam.

Testimony in support of the measure was submitted by the Department of Agriculture; The Nature Conservancy; Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter; and Hawaii Audubon Society. Matson Navigation Company submitted comments on the measure.

Your Committees find that it is in the best interests of the State to take all reasonable and appropriate precautions to ensure that the brown tree snake does not become established in Hawaii. Your Committees believe that the threat of denying entry to uncertified items will encourage greater voluntary inspections of items being sent from Guam to Hawaii and contribute significantly to the efforts to prevent the brown tree snake from becoming established in the State.

Your Committees incorporated the suggestion of the Department of Agriculture and amended this measure by replacing the term "article" with "item" in the proposed new section to Chapter 150A, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2477, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2477, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.