STAND. COM. REP. NO. 167-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 1831

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committees on Agriculture & Food Systems and Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 1831 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL LANDS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize and appropriate funds for the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, in coordination with relevant state agencies, to identify and resolve survey deficiencies and wastewater compliance issues on non-agricultural park lands.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc.; Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau; and two individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity.

Your Committees find that Act 90, Session Laws of Hawaii 2003 (Act 90), permits various agricultural lands to be transferred by the Department of Land and Natural Resources to what is now the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. The passage of Act 90 allowed tens of thousands of acres to be transferred and are now administered by the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity under various leases.

Your Committees further find that the existing lessees of the transferred lands received lands with unresolved survey issues and noncompliant cesspools or other wastewater systems that they did not create, which have created regulatory uncertainty, limited lessees' access to financing and permits, and constrained agricultural use of otherwise productive lands. This measure provides the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity with the authority and funding to address long-standing survey deficiencies and wastewater compliance issues on the transferred lands.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity is authorized to survey deficiencies and wastewater compliance issues if such action is legally permissible;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture & Food Systems and Energy & Environmental Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1831, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1831, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture & Food Systems and Energy & Environmental Protection,

____________________________ NICOLE E. LOWEN, Chair

____________________________ CORY CHUN, Chair