STAND. COM. REP. NO. 772-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 2597

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 Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 2597, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require and appropriate funds for the Chief Data Officer to:

(1) Enhance the State's open data portal website through the phased development and publishing of an artificial intelligence chatbot as a virtual assistant on statewide shared data sets; and

(2) Develop a system to evaluate and select artificial intelligence governance tools for use by state departments and agencies and establish a reporting and publication mechanism related to artificial intelligence use cases and vendors used by the departments and agencies.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation; Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Office of Information Practices; and Enterprise Technology Services.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2597, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

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

____________________________

CHRIS TODD, Chair