Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety & Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2879, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate an unspecified amount for the operational expenses of the Hawaii Civil Air Patrol.

Your Committee received supporting testimony from the Department of Defense, the Hawaii Wing Commander and former Wing Commander of the Hawaii Civil Air Patrol, and the parent of a Hawaii Civil Air Patrol member.

Your Committee finds that the Hawaii Civil Air Patrol is a volunteer peacetime auxiliary of the United States Air Force with approximately five hundred fifty members. It responds to natural disasters and provides search and rescue, homeland security, and medical emergency transport services to local and national organizations.

The Civil Air Patrol conducts more than ninety-five per cent of the nation's inland search and rescue missions and saves approximately one hundred people every year. The Hawaii Wing of the Civil Air Patrol is also an active participant in counter-drug operations for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and has assisted in more than one hundred seventy-nine missions in 2003.

This measure would allow the Hawaii Civil Air Patrol to continue its mission of serving the general public and assisting other government agencies as needed.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety & Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2879, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.