STAND. COM. REP. NO. 238

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 295

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 Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 295 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to amend the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, as amended, to authorize the transfer of a living beneficiary's place on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands' waitlist for any residential, agricultural, or pastoral tract to a successor who is at least one twenty-fifth Hawaiian, if the beneficiary dies.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Hawaii Self-Advocacy Advisory Council; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Your Committee finds that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has faced significant challenges in reducing the waitlist for beneficiaries, with many eligible individuals experiencing prolonged delays. These delays have caused hardship, particularly for the families of beneficiaries who have passed away before securing a homestead. This measure will ensure that intergenerational inequities are not compounded by enabling children and other immediate relatives of beneficiaries who die while on the waitlist to succeed to the land that their family member was never able to rightfully inhabit and enjoy while alive.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting a definition for "qualified application successor" and specifying that the individual must be at least one-fourth Hawaiian;

(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 Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 295, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 295, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Housing,

____________________________

LUKE A. EVSLIN, Chair