STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1128-24

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2024

RE: S.B. No. 3363

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 3363, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide that a living beneficiary's place on the Department of Hawaiian Home Land's waiting list for any residential, agricultural, or pastoral tract may be designated for transfer to a successor if the living beneficiary dies before receiving an offer for a tract and that the successor is at least 1/32 Hawaiian.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and one individual.

Your Committee finds that the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, P.L. 67-34 (HHCA), set aside two hundred thousand acres of land in trust and established trust funds for the use of the indigenous people of Hawaiʻi. The United States Congress intended that this Hawaiian Home Lands Trust would enable its beneficiaries to return to their land to improve and perpetuate their self-sufficiency and cultural preservation. Under the HHCA, persons having at least fifty percent Hawaiian blood are eligible for homestead leases.

Your Committee further finds that the extensive waiting list results in many beneficiaries passing away before they may be awarded a lease. This measure would allow a living beneficiary to designate a successor to the beneficiary's place on the waiting list.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the successor must also meet the fifty percent Hawaiian blood threshold, rather than allow the successor to only meet a 1/32 Hawaiian blood threshold; 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 Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3363, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3363, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair