Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 2879 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to make an appropriation for the Hawaii Civil Air Patrol (CAP) to assist in defraying operational expenses.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Civil Defense, Hawaii CAP, and three individuals.

Today, as a peacetime auxiliary of the Air Force, the Hawaii CAP remains an active volunteer organization with approximately five hundred fifty members, including two hundred cadets. The Hawaii wing has three primary missions: search and rescue, aerospace education, and the cadet program. It is also an active participant in counter-drug operations for the Drug Enforcement Agency, flying over one hundred seventy-nine missions in 2003.

Your Committee finds that the Hawaii CAP depends on receiving state funding to defray its operational expenses, but past budget restrictions have hampered its ability to carry out necessary operations. The State Civil Defense testified that the Hawaii CAP operations are especially crucial to the civil defense warning system for tsunami. Additionally, the Hawaii CAP performs other important functions for civil defense such as air reconnaissance, aerial damage assessments, inland search and rescue, and small cargo delivery when inter-island transportation is not available.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2879 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.