STAND. COM. REP. NO. 256

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 599

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 599 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Transportation or appropriate county department, when disposing of a deceased cat or dog from a public roadway, to scan the animal for a microchip, record certain information, and report that information to the appropriate county animal services or animal service contractor; and

(2) Appropriate funds.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation, Hawaiian Humane Society, Pacific Pet Alliance, and sixteen individuals.

Your Committee finds that since January 1, 2022, all cat and dog owners in the State have been required to have a microchip implanted in their pet and to register that microchip number and the owner's contact information with a microchip registration company. When employees of the state and county agencies responsible for disposing roadkill pick up dead cats and dogs that have been killed on public roadways, they do not routinely scan the deceased animals for microchips or take any other measures to ascertain the animal's owner. Accordingly, this measure will allow pet owners to know if their pets have been found.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 599 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts,

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CHRIS LEE, Chair