STAND. COM. REP. NO. 602

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1266

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 Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1266 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BURIAL SITES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to create an inter-division program within the Department of Land and Natural Resources consisting of certain agencies to address the location of Hawaiian burial sites and save movement and restoration of iwi that are exposed or likely to be exposed due to coastal erosion.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committees find that sea level rise caused by climate change threatens to expose Hawaiian burial sites and the iwi interred therein. Your Committees further find that saving iwi that are exposed or at risk of exposure is necessary because these burial sites and iwi are vital parts of Hawaiian culture that serve as ancestral links to the past. This measure will provide the resources and coordination to effectively and proactively protect Hawaiian burial sites and iwi that are endangered by coastal erosion and climate change.

Your Committees note the concern raised by the Department of Land and Natural Resources regarding the proposed deadline of twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2026 for the report.

Accordingly, you Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Extending the deadline of the report required by this measure to twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2027; and

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1266, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1266, 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 Hawaiian Affairs,

________________________________ HERBERT M. RICHARDS, III, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair