STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1539

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 451

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 451, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSION ACT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to reduce the minimum Hawaiian blood quantum requirement of certain successors to lessees of Hawaiian home lands from one-quarter to one thirty-second.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Sovereign Councils of Hawaiian Homelands Assembly, and twenty-six individuals.

     Your Committee finds that many descendants of lessees of Hawaiian home lands do not qualify as successors because interracial marriages and blended families produce descendants who are less than twenty-five percent Hawaiian.  By reducing the minimum Hawaiian blood quantum requirement of certain successors, this measure prevents the disruptions that can create undue hardships of displacement and interference with families' abilities to maintain the equity of their homes and businesses.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 451, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 451, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair