STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2328

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2295

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2295 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 establish an inter-division program within the Department of Land and Natural Resources consisting of the State Historic Preservation Division, Land Division, Office of Conservation and Preservation Division, Office of Conservation of Coastal Lands, Island Burial Councils, and Office of Hawaiian Affairs to address:

(1) The location of Hawaiian burial sites; and

(2) The safe movement and restoration of iwi that are exposed or likely to be exposed due to coastal erosion.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Society for Hawaiian Archaeology, and five individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and one individual.

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 are 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. This measure will provide the resources and coordination to effectively and proactively protect Hawaiian burial sites and iwi that are threatened by coastal erosion and climate change.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the reference of "container" to "hanaʻi" in the legislative findings;

(2) Adding Aha Moku to the groups that shall develop the inter-division;

(3) Inserting language clarifying that lineal or cultural descendants must approve of the relocation of iwi;

(4) Removing language that would have required the inter-division to develop policies and procedures to protect iwi and burial sites that have not been relocated or that have been relocated;

(5) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

(6) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

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. 2295, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2295, 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