STAND. COM. REP. NO. 295

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1304

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 Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 1304 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PESTICIDE DRIFT MONITORING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Agriculture to continue the statewide pesticide drift monitoring study.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, University of Hawaiʻi System, Office of the Mayor of the County of Maui, and three individuals.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action.

Your Committee finds that pesticides pose a significant risk to public health as a known carcinogen. Therefore, this measure protects the public health of local communities, especially children, from the harmful effects of pesticides while ensuring the safety of areas impacted by pesticide drift.

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1304, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1304, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,

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MIKE GABBARD, Chair