STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1208

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1058

H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1058, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ADOPTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow an adopted individual to be considered as a child of both their adopted parents and natural parents for the sole purpose of determining familial relationships under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, as amended (HHCA).

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and two individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that adoption can impact the ability of an adopted individual, or members of an individual's natural family who are subsequently adopted, to succeed to a homestead lease or application on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands waiting list. Under the current law, a native Hawaiian child whose biological parents are on the homestead waiting list would lose their legal ability to succeed to a homestead lease following their adoption by non-native Hawaiian parents. Therefore, this measure serves to address situations such as this, by allowing an adopted individual to maintain their natural family's relationship status and thereby succeed to a lease. Your Committee notes that this measure does not alter any other requirements under the HHCA, such as the blood quantum requirement for successor lessees, and thus would not allow a child who does not meet the requisite blood quantum requirement to succeed to a lease under the HHCA after being adopted by non-native Hawaiian parents.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1058, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

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MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair