Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Transportation and Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 516, H.D. 2, entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the Department of Health to maintain an emergency response stockpile to prepare for or respond to a potential chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear, or explosive (CBRNE) event.

The Department of Health, the Board of Pharmacy, and the Healthcare Association of Hawaii submitted testimony in support of this measure.

Your Committees find that according to the testimony of the Department of Health, it needs to be able to maintain supplies of drugs and medical devices to respond to a potential terrorism or technological disaster without being licensed as a drug wholesaler. This measure will also allow the Department to maintain pharmaceuticals under the federal shelf life extension program of the Food and Drug Administration without violating existing state law.

Your Committees have amended this measure by changing the effective date to take effect upon its approval.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Transportation and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 516, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 516, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.