STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3242

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1601

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water, Land, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 1601, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BIOSECURITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the amount and expending agency for a fiscal year 2026-2027 appropriation for the Hawaii Invasive Species Council from the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity; Department of Land and Natural Resources; Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species; Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau; Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi; Kūpuna for the Moʻopuna; Hawaiʻi Food+ Policy; Oʻahu Invasive Species Committee; The Nature Conservancy, Hawaiʻi and Palmyra; Free Access Coalition; and twenty-three individuals.

Your Committees find that Act 236, Session Laws of Hawaii 2025, provided for the transfer of the Hawaii Invasive Species Council to the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity in 2030, but also designated the Department as the expending agency for the fiscal year 2026-2027 appropriation for the operation of the Council. As the Council will remain administratively housed within the Department of Land and Natural Resources until 2030, this error must be corrected for the funds to be expended to support the Council's invasive species prevention and response programs in the next fiscal year. This measure improves administrative clarity and efficiency by aligning the funding for the Council with its current parent agency, thereby ensuring the undisrupted continuation of critical biosecurity efforts.

Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Water, Land, Culture and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1601, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1601, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair