STAND. COM. REP. NO.  821-16

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

RE:   H.B. No. 1869

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 1869, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ROSE-RINGED PARAKEET,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to address the damage to agricultural crops and local ecology and the potential health threats to residents due to the increasing population of rose-ringed parakeets on Kauai by appropriating funds to the Department of Agriculture to assist the National Wildlife Research Center of the United States Department of Agriculture (Research Center) with:

     (1)  Completion of the Research Center's research on the negative impacts of the rose-ringed parakeet on the island of Kauai; and

     (2)  Development and implementation of an effective control plan to reduce those negative impacts.

The Kauai County Farm Bureau, Syngenta, Kauai Invasive Species Committee, Hawai‘i Farm Bureau, Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, and several individuals provided testimony in support of the measure.  The Department of Land and Natural Resources and Department of Agriculture provided comments.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1869, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

____________________________

SYLVIA LUKE, Chair