STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2340

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3097

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Higher Education and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 3097 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require and appropriate funds for the University of Hawai‘i to support research that will benefit the residents of Hawaii.

Prior to the hearing on this measure, your Committees posted and made available for public review a proposed S.D. 1, which deletes the contents of this measure and inserts language to appropriate funds to the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo for research related to rat lungworm disease.

Your Committees received testimony in support of the proposed S.D. 1 from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, and one individual. Your Committees received comments on the proposed S.D. 1 from Hawai‘i Farm Bureau.

Your Committees find that the Department of Health has reported over seventy cases of rat lungworm disease caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis from 2001 to 2014. There were many more cases in 2017, including at least eleven on Hawai‘i Island, six on Maui, and one on Oahu. The disease has claimed lives and caused crippling chronic disability. The cost of treatment for one severe case can exceed $1,000,000.

Your Committees further find that although rat lungworm disease is recognized as a serious threat to human health and agriculture in Hawai‘i, sufficient funding has not been available to support the broad level of education, research, and control activities needed to mitigate this threat.

Your Committees have amended this measure by adopting the proposed S.D. 1 and further amending the measure by specifying that the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo conduct research related to the control, rather than eradication, and prevention of rat lungworm disease.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3097, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3097, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Higher Education and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health,

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

________________________________ KAIALI'I KAHELE, Chair