STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2889

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2850

       S.D. 2

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2850, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BIOSECURITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish and appropriate funds for the Department of Agriculture's biosecurity program.

     The measure also appropriates funds for planning interim and permanent joint inspection biosecurity facilities.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, the Conservation Council for Hawaii, the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, and the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association.

     Your Committee finds that invasive pests can cause millions of dollars in crop losses, the extinction of native species, the destruction of native forests, the spread of disease, and the quarantine of exported agricultural crops.

     Despite efforts to detect and eradicate invasive species, the State is constantly at risk from insects, disease-bearing organisms, snakes, weeds, and other invasive pests that attempt to enter our State each year.  In response to this threat, the Department of Agriculture has created a biosecurity program to fight invasive species on several fronts by:

     (1)  Administering pre-entry measures to minimize the risk of invasive pests entering the State;

     (2)  Conducting port-of-entry inspections to detect and quarantine or destroy pests upon arrival; and

     (3)  Administering post-entry measures to mitigate the establishment of pests in the State.

     Your Committee finds that the codification of the department's biosecurity program is vital to the public's health and welfare.

     Your Committee has amended the measure by:

(1)  Amending the proposed section 150A-G of the measure to correct the reference to section "150A-E" to read section "150A-F", Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(2)  Adopting clarifying language recommended by the Department of Agriculture; and

(3)  Making other technical amendments that have no substantive effect.

     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 S.B. No. 2850, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2850, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair