STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1329

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 694

H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Higher Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 694, H.D. 1, 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 appropriate funds to support the Aquaculture Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at the Department of Agriculture Animal Industry Division Veterinary Laboratory Services Branch, in partnership with the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; University of Hawai‘i System; Hawai‘i Farm Bureau; Local Food Coalition; Shrimp Improvement Systems, LLC; Hawaii Aquaculture and Aquaponics Association; and two individuals. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committees acknowledge the importance of Hawaii's aquaculture industry and recognize that supporting local aquacultural production advances and supports the State's food sustainability and economic diversification goals. Your Committees find that currently, local aquaculture samples are sent to the University of Arizona for testing, which creates significant delays, results in excessive costs, and delays timely industry action. While the Department of Agriculture and the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources have laboratory capabilities, they lack the appropriate personnel and industry focus that a burgeoning local aquaculture industry demands. Therefore, this measure appropriates funds to support and create new positions at the Aquaculture Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at the State Veterinary Laboratory building in the Department of Agriculture Animal Industry Division Veterinary Laboratory Services Branch, in partnership with the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, to support its development of and assistance to local aquaculture production.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 694, H.D. 1, 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 Agriculture and Environment and Higher Education,

________________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair