STAND. COM. REP. NO. 920-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: H.B. No. 2119

H.D. 2

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Corrections, Military, & Veterans, to which was referred H.B. No. 2119, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE COMPACT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to adopt the Emergency Management Assistance Compact in a new chapter of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Defense and Hawai‘i Emergency Management Agency. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Association for Justice.

Your Committee finds that this measure codifies the terms under which the Governor may enter into a compact on behalf of the State with any other state, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and any United States territorial possession for the rendering or receipt of emergency management assistance. According to the Department of Defense, this measure supports the logical alignment of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency with best emergency management practices across the country, and moving these terms and provisions into the emergency management series in the Hawaii Revised Statutes will provide for the concise, logical organization of the emergency management laws of the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that for the State of Hawaii, the adjutant general is the legally designated state official with assigned responsibility for emergency management under the compact and the authorized representative of the State who may request assistance of another party state; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Corrections, Military, & Veterans that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2119, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2119, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Corrections, Military, & Veterans,

____________________________

TAKASHI OHNO, Chair