STAND. COM. REP. NO. 160-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: H.B. No. 2515

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness and Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 2515 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Health to establish and operate a laboratory capable of testing for diseases, air and water quality issues, and other high complexity testing.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Honolulu Board of Water Supply, Life of the Land, Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and two individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committees find that the State's existing laboratory building is approximately twenty-seven years old and is not designed to accommodate new and current demands for testing. Your Committees further find that the construction of a larger building would permit the Department to follow current best practices for infectious disease testing, safely test for agents of bioterrorism, and handle the projected volumes of water testing now required for ensuring communities have safe drinking water after potential fuel contamination of an important aquifer.

Your Committees have amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness and Energy & Environmental Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2515, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2515, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness and Energy & Environmental Protection,

____________________________ NICOLE E. LOWEN, Chair

____________________________ RYAN I. YAMANE, Chair