STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1230

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 299

H.D. 1

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 Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred H.B. No. 299, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII INVASIVE SPECIES COUNCIL,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Native Resources and Fire Protection Program and Hawaii Invasive Species Council to control and eradicate invasive species in the State.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Health, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council, Honolulu Board of Water Supply, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Forest Industry Association, Free Access Coalition, Shimanchu Wai Protectors, Slow Food Oahu, Life of the Land, Green Party of Hawaiʻi, Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo, Hawaiʻi Climate Change and Health Working Group, Oʻahu Invasive Species Committee, and forty-six individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Big Island Invasive Species Committee and Pōhaku Pelemaka.

Your Committees find that the Hawaii Invasive Species Council (Council) fills an indispensable role as an agency that coordinates efforts to control and eradicate invasive species with and across multiple agencies and organizations. Your Committees further find that despite the invaluable work carried out by the Council, funding for the Council has not increased in four years, limiting the Council and its partner organizations to invasive species containment rather than eradication. This measure will provide the Council and the Native Resources and Fire Protection Program with the necessary resources to continue to control and eradicate invasive species in the State.

Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 299, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 299, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair