STAND. COM. REP. NO. 171

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 312

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 312 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BIOSECURITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide funding for the Department of Agriculture to complete the implementation and continue the operation of its biosecurity programs.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Hawaii Farmers Union United, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Maui County Farm Bureau, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Nature Conservancy, Hawaii Farmers Union United Kona Chapter, Hawaii Agriculture Resource Center, Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery Association, Conservation Council for Hawaii, Hawaii Farmers Union United HTF, and twenty-two individuals.

     Your Committees find that despite the State's ongoing efforts to detect and eradicate invasive species, our fragile island ecosystems are constantly at risk from insects, disease-bearing organisms, snakes, weeds, and other invasive pests.  Your Committees further find that the Department of Agriculture has created a biosecurity program to fight invasive species on several fronts by:

     (1)  Administering pre-entry measures to minimalize the risk of invasive species 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 invasive species within the State.

To encourage continued efforts to fight invasive species, your Committees find that it is necessary to provide funding to support biosecurity programs.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 312, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 312, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environment,

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

____________________________ RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair