STAND. COM. REP. NO. 322

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: H.B. No. 812

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Higher Education & Technology, to which was referred H.B. No. 812 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the University of Hawaii for various university programs and projects.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawai‘i System, Papa Ola Lokahi, Chaminade University of Honolulu, and two individuals.

Your Committee finds that these programs collectively study and implement practices that contribute to the progress, sustainability, and health of the State, including by:

(1) Facilitating an understanding of how soil health practices contribute to increased carbon sequestration and reduced greenhouse gas emissions;

(2) Training students and educators across the State in advanced capabilities that include building, testing, and encoding artificial intelligence into planetary surface vehicles;

(3) Building clinical and translational research infrastructure to improve the health and wellbeing of Native Hawaiians and other medically underserved populations in Hawaii; and

(4) Researching pressing climate-change questions, including the gathering of data by a new weather and climate monitoring network.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriations to unspecified amounts;

(2) Clarifying that the expending agency is the University of Hawaii;

(3) Changing the effective date to June 30, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider the following appropriation amounts: $6,670,000 for the Hawaii climate-smart commodities program; $1,000,000 to continue the STEM training for students through the Hawaii space flight laboratory; $3,000,000 for the Center for Pacific Innovations, Knowledge, and Opportunities; $1,000,000 for the Change Hawaii Project and Hawaii Mesonet Project; and $125,000,000 for a prototype designer artificial coral reef project.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education & Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 812, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 812, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education & Technology,

____________________________

AMY A. PERRUSO, Chair