STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1675

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1866

       H.D. 3

       S.D. 2

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1866, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MIXED MARTIAL ARTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to give the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs licensing authority to regulate mixed martial arts contests.

     Furthermore, this measure bans no rules combat, extreme or ultimate fighting, or similar contests.

     Your Committee received comments in support of the measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

     Your Committee finds that mixed martial arts are currently unregulated.  Without regulatory safeguards in place, there is a possibility of serious injuries to contestants and spectators, or that events may not be authentic, and thus work a fraud upon spectators to those events.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Setting out the prohibition against no rules combat, extreme or ultimate fighting, or similar contests as a separate section in the new chapter;

     (2)  Changing the effective date of this Act to provide that:

          (A)  The powers and duties of the director under the new chapter created by this Act take effect upon approval;

          (B)  The appropriation section takes effect on July 1, 2007; and

          (C)  The rest of the measure, including the repeal of chapter 440D, Hawaii Revised Statutes, takes effect on July 1, 2009.

     (3)  Changing the appropriations to blank amounts; and

     (4)  Making technical nonsubstantive changes.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1866, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1866, H.D. 3, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair