STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 509
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2025
RE: H.B. No. 1025
H.D. 1
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Madame:
Your Committee on Culture & Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 1025 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CENTER FOR CULTURAL AND TECHNICAL INTERCHANGE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, INC,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to:
(1) Designate the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, Inc., as the State of Hawaii Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, Inc. (East-West Center);
(2) Exempt general revenues of the State of Hawaii received by the East-West Center from the requirements of chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and
(3) Establish criteria the East-West Center must meet to receive state funds.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; East-West Center; and Hawaiʻi Friends of Civil Rights. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.
Your Committee finds that in 1960, federal law authorized the establishment of a center in Hawaii for cultural and technical interchange between the East and West. In 1975, the Legislature established an educational non-profit public corporation through Act 82, Session Laws of Hawaii 1975 (Act 82) that would come to be known as the East-West Center. Act 82 specified the purposes of the East-West Center, which included, among other things, the promotion of better relations and understanding between the United States and the nations of the East.
Your Committee further finds that since its establishment, the East-West Center has made a profound impact on the State's communities by hosting international scholars, conducting research on critical regional issues, and facilitating dialogue among leaders from various sectors, which has attracted global attention and enhanced the State's reputation as a hub for international engagement. Your Committee also finds that the East-West Center has served as a diplomatic resource for the State, United States, and Asia-Pacific region and fills a vital role in promoting better relations between the United States and nations of Asia and the Pacific.
Your Committee has amended this measure accordingly by:
(1) Inserting legislative findings in the preamble that the East-West Center serves a public purpose and that granting authorization to the East-West Center to receive appropriations of state general revenues, exempt from the requirements of chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, complies with the public purpose requirement of Article VII, section 4, of the Hawaii State Constitution;
(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and
(3) 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 Culture & Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1025, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1025, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Culture & Arts,
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____________________________ JEANNE KAPELA, Chair |
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