STAND. COM. REP. NO. 572

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 548

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 S.B. No. 548 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 to the Native Resources and Fire Protection Program and the Hawaii Invasive Species Council to continue to control and eradicate invasive species in the State.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Invasive Species Council, Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, The Outdoor Circle, Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo, Hawaiʻi Reef and Ocean Coalition, Green Party of Hawaiʻi, The Nature Conservancy, Oʻahu Invasive Species Council, and seventeen individuals.

Your Committees find that the Hawaii Invasive Species Council conducts critical work supporting on-the-ground response efforts to address some of the State's worst pests. Your Committees further find that organizations and work funded through the Hawaii Invasive Species Council are integral to the State's overall biosecurity program. This measure will bolster the Hawaii Invasive Species Council's ongoing efforts to control and eradicate invasive species in the State.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;

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

(3) 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 S.B. No. 548, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 548, 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