STAND. COM. REP. NO. 13

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 734

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 734 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BURIAL SITES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish an inter-division program between the State Historic Preservation Division, Land Division, Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, Island Burial Councils, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs that addresses the location, movement, and restoration of Hawaiian burial sites and ‘iwi, exposed or likely to be exposed to coastal erosion; and

(2) Appropriate funds.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and two individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committees find that climate change in the form of coastal erosion due to sea level rise poses a significant threat to Hawaiian burial sites and ‘iwi interred therein. Action must be taken to protect ‘iwi that is exposed or likely to be exposed to coastal erosion before they are lost to the elements. Your Committees further find that these burial sites and ‘iwi are of vital importance to Hawaiian culture, serving as ancestral links to the past. Therefore, this measure will create an inter-division program between the State Historic Preservation Division, Land Division, Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, Island Burial Councils, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to address the location, movement, and restoration of Hawaiian burial sites exposed or likely to be exposed to coastal erosion.

Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 734, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 734, 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 Hawaiian Affairs,

________________________________ MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair