STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2358

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3266

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 Transportation and Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 3266 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VEGETATION MANAGEMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Transportation for vegetation management projects to reduce the risks of wildfires across the State.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation, Department of Land and Natural Resources, and two individuals.

Your Committee finds that vegetation management is a valuable method of addressing potentially hazardous conditions to improve public safety. Your Committee further finds that prioritizing vegetation management, particularly along state roadways, is crucial to devising a maintenance schedule to reduce wildland fire fuel loads. This measure will reduce the risk of wildfires throughout the State by appropriating funding for mitigation efforts.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Decreasing the appropriation amount to the Department of Transportation from $10,000,000 to $5,000,000;

(2) Adding language to appropriate $5,000,000 to the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife for vegetation management projects to reduce the risks of wildfires across the State;

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

(4) 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 Transportation and Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3266, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3266, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts,

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CHRIS LEE, Chair