STAND. COM. REP. NO. 98

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 533

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 533 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Education to evaluate school needs to mitigate the impact of the planned Public Safety Power Shutoff program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education and Hawaiian Electric.

Your Committee finds that the State has prioritized public safety and emergency preparedness following the 2023 Maui wildfires. As part of its emergency preparedness plans, a local investor-owned public electric utility is preparing to commence planned safety power shutoffs to prepare for real emergency situations. While the utility has mitigated the impact to some schools statewide, the planned safety power shutoff has been unable to be mitigated for certain schools on Maui and Hawaii Island. In light of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, your Committee further finds that this proactive approach will help mitigate impacts to Department of Education schools while ensuring a clear, defined safety plan for the electric utility. Therefore, this measure ensures continued access to education while preparing the State for unforeseen emergencies.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;

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

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committee notes that this measure, as amended, contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $1,000,000 for identified schools subject to the planned Public Safety Power Shutoff program.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 533, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 533, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair