STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1249

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1449

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 1449, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PLANT CARE COMPONENTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Authorize the Department of Agriculture to adopt rules related to the Plant Care Component Program;

(2) Prohibit distributing plant care components that originated outside the State unless subjected to treatment before arrival;

(3) Establish administrative penalties to enforce the Plant Care Component Program; and

(4) Appropriate funds and establish positions for purposes of the Plant Care Component Program.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture and Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau.

Your Committees find that properly treating plant care components before they are distributed or transported within and from the State will help prevent the introduction and spread of invasive species. Your Committees recognize that the Legislature addressed this biosecurity concern by requiring the Department of Agriculture (Department), through Act 197, Session Laws of Hawaii 2024, to certify treatments performed on wood chips, compost, and filter socks and placing certain restrictions on distributing or transporting plant care components without prior treatment certification. This measure further strengthens the Department's ability to prevent the introduction and spread of invasive species through infested plant care components by providing the Department with the authority and resources to enforce the certification and treatment of imported plant care components in the State.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committees note that this measure contains an unspecified appropriation amount and establishes an unspecified number of certain positions. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committees respectfully request that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $471,168 for each fiscal year of the biennium for the implementation and performance of the Plant Care Component Program and the establishment of one full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) permanent civil service plant quarantine inspector IV position and seven full-time equivalent (7.0 FTE) permanent civil service plant quarantine inspector III positions within the Plant Quarantine Branch of the Plant Industry Division of the Department of Agriculture.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1449, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1449, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, 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 Judiciary,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair