STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2132

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2640

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2640 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSION ACT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to reduce the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands waitlist by authorizing the department to provide beneficiaries with a cash award to purchase a residential lot outside of the department's trust lands, or to pay the beneficiary's existing mortgage note or rent in lieu of awarding the beneficiary a lease.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from two individuals.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and one individual.

Your committee finds that there are approximately twenty-four thousand native Hawaiian beneficiaries on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands waitlist. However, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands does not possess sufficient land to house everyone on the waitlist. This measure simultaneously meets the housing needs of beneficiaries and reduces the number of beneficiaries on the waitlist by amending the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act to allow the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to provide beneficiaries with a cash award in lieu of a lease.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands may expend funds for this measure at the sole discretion of the Hawaiian Homes Commission;

(2) Clarifying that any beneficiary that accepts a cash award shall relinquish only their right to reapply to the waitlist and is otherwise entitled to other rights provided by the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, as amended;

(3) Specifying that this measure shall not create any entitlement to a cash award;

(4) Specifying that the failure of the Hawaiian Homes Commission to authorize cash awards shall not give rise to breach of trust or fiduciary duty claims;

(5) Specifying that the funds available in the Hawaiian Home Loan Fund shall be expended for the purposes of this measure;

(6) Making the effective date upon either the date congressional consent is deemed unnecessary or on the date of consent by the United States Congress; and

(7) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency;

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 S.B. No. 2640, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2640, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary.

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

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MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair