STAND. COM. REP. NO. 60-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 1960

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Tourism, to which was referred H.B. No. 1960 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of the Attorney General to develop a human trafficking awareness training program to educate and train workers in the transient accommodations sector; and

(2) Require employers in the transient accommodations sector to periodically provide human trafficking awareness training to certain employees and contract workers, keep records, post signage, and develop and implement a human trafficking prevention policy.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Department of Law Enforcement; Hawaii Hotel Alliance; American Hotel & Lodging Association; Imua Alliance; and two individuals.

Your Committee finds that human trafficking remains a serious and persistent threat to the safety and well‑being of the State's residents and visitors. Your Committee further finds that transient accommodations are frequently used by traffickers to recruit, exploit, and conceal victims and that workers in hotels and other transient accommodations are uniquely positioned to identify potential trafficking situations. This measure is intended to strengthen the State's efforts to prevent human trafficking by requiring the establishment of a human trafficking awareness training program for the transient accommodations sector to ensure appropriate accountability and compliance mechanisms.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring the Department of the Attorney General to develop a human trafficking awareness training program no later than July 1, 2027, and requiring transient accommodations employers and transient accommodations third-party contractors to provide training to certain employees and contract workers beginning July 1, 2027;

(2) Allowing the Department of the Attorney General to approve an externally created human trafficking awareness training program for use in the transient accommodations sector;

(3) Requiring transient accommodations third-party contractors, as well as transient accommodations employers, to periodically provide human trafficking awareness training to certain employees and contract workers, keep records, post signage, and develop and implement a human trafficking prevention policy;

(4) Requiring the Department of Law Enforcement, rather than the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, to develop rules and enforce human trafficking awareness training requirements;

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

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Tourism that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1960, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1960, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Tourism,

____________________________

ADRIAN K. TAM, Chair