STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2535

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2473

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2473 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GUIDE DOGS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the planning and design of a professional training facility for guide dogs and other professionally trained career dogs on a designated portion of the state animal quarantine facility in Halawa Valley on Oahu.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Department of Agriculture, Guide Dogs of Hawaii, and nine individuals.

Your Committees find that professionally trained guide dogs, services, and assistive aids for Hawaii's blind and visually impaired community yields higher employment with less need for lifetime support services for youth and greater independence and mobility for adults and seniors, thus minimizing the need for long term home and nursing care as well as fewer burdens to family, friends, and the community.

Your Committees further find that only half of the twenty-nine-acre site of the state animal quarantine facility in lower Halawa valley has been slated for use by the Department of Public Safety as the location for the new Oahu Community Correctional Center. An environmental impact statement has already been prepared for the site, which allows the State to repurpose the remainder of the site for public benefit. This site is well-suited to be the location of a guide dog training facility to reduce the dependence upon the importation of professionally trained guide dogs from elsewhere.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2473 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair