STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2591

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2815

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 Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2815 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INFRASTRUCTURE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a working group to conduct a comprehensive study to assess the State's port and harbor system and the potential viability of each location in that system to support current and future agricultural product transportation methods and needs.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation; Department of Agriculture; Agribusiness Development Corporation; Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau; Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc; and Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery Association.

Your Committees find that the Hawaii intrastate transportation system is critical to Hawaii's agriculture. Your Committees further find that an assessment of the supply chain in its entirety will help the State identify solutions and mitigate future challenges in the evolving shipping landscape. This measure will help the State improve its intrastate transportation system.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the study shall include an assessment of the maximum number of livestock that each pier in the State's port or harbor system is able to accommodate in shaded areas;

(2) Specifying that the study shall include an assessment of areas where goods can be inspected, quarantined, and destroyed; and

(3) 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 Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2815, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2815, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair