House Standing Committee on Higher Education

All right. Good afternoon everybody. We are convening the House Committee on Higher Education. Today is Friday, January 31st. It is 2:15pm and we're here in Conference Room 309. Before we begin the hearing today, just wanted to say to the Committee, thank you Vice Chair Amato, for serving in this capacity.

Just wanted to convey what an honor and privilege it is to serve in this capacity.

I want to thank the Members who I'm sure are listening on YouTube and not trying to punk me by not being here today that I appreciated the one on ones that we had to talk about what we can do collectively to uplift and support all the post secondary institutions in our state.

This is my first time being a chair, so I'm going to ask everyone for their patience in advance. But I just did want to mention three things that I intend to follow in terms of how we manage this Committee.

So number one, even though the House rules stipulate that hearing notices have to be filed no later than 48 hours, we are going to intend to, we do intend to file all of our notices with at least 72 hours notice.

There are times where we have kind of a crunch in the legislative calendar but again, to the extent possible, we'll be giving 72 hour notices for our hearings. Number two, the House rules dictate that we release all of the received testimony by no later than two hours before the hearing.

Our Committee will release them by 5pm the day before, which works out to about 21 hours I believe.

And then lastly, if we have any bills that require substantive changes in terms of the HT1, my intention is to defer that Bill to the next scheduled hearing and I will circulate a soft copy of the proposed amendment so you're not voting on anything blind in Committee. Members, with that, any questions or comments.

I Just want to thank you for your commitment to transparency, Chair. I'm looking forward to serving with you. Thank you.

Feeling is mutual. Thank you, Vice Chair. So with that, let's go ahead and get started. So we have six bills on our agenda today. First up is House Bill 223 relating to pharmacy. This bill establishes the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy Special Fund to support pharmacists workforce assessment and planning efforts.

It establishes a pharmacist workforce assessment fee and appropriates funds. Up first we have the Board of Pharmacy, Christopher Fernandez providing comments.

Good afternoon, Chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Christopher Fernandez, Executive Officer with the PBL. I'm here to stand on the board's testimony that's offering comments from. Sorry, from previous bills. If you have any questions, we'll be available. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Up next in person, we have Corrie Sanders with the Hawaii Pharmacists Association, likewise providing comments.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, I want to lean into two aspects of my testimony with what really the Center for Pharmacy will be used for. Number one is to collect workforce data in the state.

Right now we have really minimal data on where pharmacists can be the biggest impact to improve access and quality of care and also really serving as the voice of the profession at large. So outside of the University, our Board of Pharmacy is all volunteer. The State Association is all volunteer.

We're asking for similar treatment that medicine and nursing have to really have an active role during business hours with what pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can do to improve care. I will say I do think this is the missing piece for our profession. We are considered a pretty unprogressive state to practice pharmacy in.

And with something like a Center for Pharmacy, I do feel like we can really propel ourselves forward. A lot of team based care models. I will say I noted this morning the comments from the Department of Budget and Finance. This is really anticipated to be a self sustaining center similar to the Center for Nursing.

They only have three positions allocated in statute, but they have nine positions now with additional access to funding. And then I also noted some of the testimony from the Board of Pharmacy. They're looking for additional oversight.

We'll work with them during their next meeting to conclude whether that's a board or provisions and updates to the Legislature on the Board of Pharmacy. We're happy to do whatever they would like in terms of oversight. So I'll stand by for questions. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. Up next via Zoom, we have Chancellor and Dean Ray Matsumoto of the UH Hilo College of Pharmacy.

Written testimony and I would be happy to answer any questions.

Okay, thank you, Dean. Up next, also via Zoom, Tom Yamachika, Tax foundation of Hawaii, providing comments.

Yes, good afternoon, Chair. This is Jade McMillen on behalf of. Tom Yamachika for the Tax Foundation of Hawaii. We have submitted comments as well on the measure. We'll sat on our written comments. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. Also via Zoom, we have Kimberly Mikami of Molokai Drugs Incorporated providing testimony in support.

Actually, I was able to fly in. I flew in Wednesday night. Mystic Storm.

Well, thank you for joining us in person.

Chairman Garrett, Vice Chair, Chairwoman Amato and members of the house Higher Education Committee. As a rural health care provider, access to comprehensive high quality health care services is our mission at Molokai Drugs.

On behalf of our employees and patients, I am testifying in favor of HB223 which proposes the establishment of a Center for Pharmacy in Hawaii. For the past 16 plus years Molokai Drugs has supported the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy in Hilo by being an intern preceptor site.

We do this to help grow the profession and hope that we can also grow our own. One of the biggest reasons Molokai students do not attend pharmacy school is the pure expense of four years of off island tuition, books, fees, et cetera, which is now approximately $107,800 per pharmacy Dean Ray Matsumoto.

This number does not include room and board. One of the proposed roles of the new center will also include coordinating pharmacy student loan repayment programs by working in rural and or underserved areas like Molokai. By having a center helping with pharmacy school student loan repayment, we will find more Molokaians going into the pharmacy profession.

It's not in my testimony, but right now we have a full time employee who works 40 hours a week and she is taking four classes at night. She normally stays up till one in the morning to take all of her pre pharmacy classes so she can apply for pharmacy school next year.

Molokai Drugs has also been a training work site for nationally certified pharmacy technician training. We recently worked with Good Jobs Hawaii, a partnership with the State of Hawaii and University of Hawaii community colleges to help people in Hawaii attain a good quality job for generations to come.

Molokai Drugs is also partnering with DKICP and the University of Hawaii Maui College with expanded certified pharmacy technician development which includes immunization training. This new center will also help implement retention initiatives for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians which has always been a concern of rural health care facilities like ours.

So that a portion of the fees for licensure maybe secure to support a director similar to doctors and nurses centers in Hawaii, Molokai Drugs is on board for paying additional fees for our pharmacists and our pharmacy technicians. Thank you for your consideration and vote for HB223.

Thank you very much. Especially coming in from Molokai.

I am one of those people that was stranded two weeks ago and I had to take a boat from hei pier to Molokai.

I was on the boat for almost four hours and altogether it took a little over five hours for me to go from town to take an Uber to Kaneohe, to get on the boat to Molokai and then get a ride to the airport.

And one of the reasons why this is off my written testimony, one of the reasons why this center is so important, we are seeing as an island providers leaving left and right. And we are seeing our Molokai born and bred folks not coming home after they've finished their medical schooling and nurses.

We right now have three doctors born and raised in Molokai practicing in Texas. We right now as of last August, we have two Molokai girls in medical school. We have a third one starting at UNLV in June of this year. And I will tell you, probably none of them are going to come home.

So these types of programs, these types of centers are critical for us to survive as an island. We, Mokulele Airlines canceled the flights this week of our one podiatrist and the one orthodontist who flies to island once a month to service 30 people.

Okay, thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anyone via Zoom? Seeing none. Members, please note that we do have comments provided by the Department of Budget and Finance, support from Pharmacare Hawaii as well as four individuals. So with that members, we'll open up for questions. We have someone from Molokai. No.

Okay, I have a few questions for the Dean. Okay, there you are. How many pharmacists are currently in Hawaii?

There are a little over 2,000 pharmacists who are registered in Hawaii. Not necessarily all of them are practicing here, but they have licenses to be able to practice here.

Okay, thank you. I'm very familiar with the Hawaii State Center for Nursing and their model, which I know this is based off of. Are you confident there's enough critical mass of pharmacists to make this a self sustaining fund?

Yes. So we work with the board of pharmacy and pulled some numbers and this is primarily Corrie Sanders at Hawaii Pharmacists Association who did this. And we looked at the numbers of pharmacists, pharmacies, permit holders, wholesalers, all of who would be paying into the this workforce assessment fee and the numbers.

And then ran some numbers on proposed fee structures and confirm that the dollars would add up to be consistent with what would be the salary and fringe for a director along with some base supplies. And the intent is that this would be a way to get the center started.

And then once the director is in place, Then there would be additional efforts to leverage additional sources of funding to do, you know, more things as needed. But at least in terms of getting the center started, that this was a profession driven way of being able to move forward.

So I want to say that this is a little bit different in terms of the budget structure of the proposed pharmacy, the Center for Pharmacy, whereas the ones for medicine and nursing have depended on some legislative allocations to form the base structure.

But because of the nature and challenges of healthcare that we have in Hawaii right now, that we feel that it's important for us to get going and getting started working with our other health profession colleagues and then build from there.

Okay, thank you. What is your vision for the center upon, like full build out? I know the Hawaii State Center for Nursing has, I think, seven employees now, maybe nine. What do you envision is kind of the end goal?

So the end goal, I think it's not about at this point, it's a little premature to talk about numbers and things, but I think one of the first things that we need to do is get a better handle on workforce assessment. So your question, how many pharmacists are here? We don't really have a good answer to that.

We know how many pharmacists are licensed to practice. We don't know necessarily how many pharmacists are currently practicing, would like to practice. We also know that although in the past we've heard--you know, I, I just moved back. I was born and raised in Hawaii. I just moved back about a year ago.

When I first came, moved back about a year ago, I heard that there were too many pharmacists in Hawaii. But in actuality, that was not the case. And where we're getting feedback that a number of pharmacy employers are having a hard time filling all of their positions.

We know as a nation we're getting ready for a pharmacist shortage. We don't have one right now, but we are gearing up for it because there's going to be more retirements coming up than students coming out of pharmacy school. And that's a concern in Hawaii when we already have shortages of physicians, shortages of nursing nurses.

And what we would like to do in the urgency in terms of getting this center started is to be able to get that director so we can be proactive about making sure that we're strategically meeting the pharmacy workforce needs in Hawaii before it becomes an insurmountable problem. So that's just the basic first step.

From there, there are a lot of opportunities, I think in Hawaii to lead the nation in terms of better leveraging pharmacists and the doctoral level of training of pharmacists that we have to be able to fill some access to care gaps, working in collaboration with our colleagues in nursing and as physicians and in specialty areas in rural and underserved areas of the state.

And so that is, you know, in a broad general way, that is the end goal. And to be able to do that and get that the citizens of the state, the access to care in a very strategic, team based way, it takes a lot of coordination.

And the intent is that this initial director of the center will start with the coordination, working with the different stakeholders, setting the priorities and then building out the additional programs that are needed to move each of those initiatives forward.

Okay, thank you Dean. Members, any other questions? Okay, seeing none. We'll move on to the next bill. House Bill 940 relating to the University of Hawaii at Hilo. This bill appropriates funds for the rat lungworm lab at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Up first. Welcome the Dean back again. Testifying in support.

Yes. So we, we stand on our written testimony and we're happy to answer any questions.

Okay, thank you very much. Members, please note we also have testimony and support from the Department of Health Disease Outbreak Control Division as well as an individual. Is there anyone in the room wishing to testify? Anyone via Zoom? Seeing none. Members, any questions? Okay, we'll continue on to the next bill. House Bill 546.

This is relating to artificial intelligence. Establishes and appropriates funds to establish the Aloha Intelligence Institute within the University of Hawaii to develop, support and advance artificial intelligence initiatives statewide. First, we have the University of Hawaii Vice President Vassilis Syrmos testifying in support.

Good afternoon, Chair. Vice Chair. Members of the committee. First of all, let me thank you for. God, the days are going fast. Yesterday or the day before yesterday for having a meeting on AI both from K through 12 and the university. Thank you for inviting us. So we're standing in support of the creation of the institute.

I can give you a little bit of a highlight how we are thinking of initiating the institute and seed funding it. We have a three prong approach. We are asking the state to be a partner in that funding opportunity, if you will. But we have really strong funding from the federal government.

Now we don't know if the federal government will be functioning, but we do have very strong funding from the federal government and also we're looking at philanthropy. So we have that three pronged approach. We are not wed to the state funding the whole Institute.

But we would love for you to be an investor, if you will, for something really good for the university and for the state. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. Up next, we have the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly. Not seeing them in the room. They have provided testimony and support. Up next on Zoom, Shelby Pikachu Billionaire, not present. Shucks, providing comments. Members, please also note we have testimony in opposition from two individuals.

Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify?

Anyone via Zoom?

Seeing none. Members, questions? House Bill 546. I have a few questions for VP Syrmos. So I know right now the bill has this house within your area. Do you see this as a temporary home, like within the research area, or do you see this eventually branching out to become like maybe its own standalone department?

Actually, we think becoming a standalone entity under UH system encompasses all our 10 campuses. But we are looking to incubate under my area right now because a big part of the investment is going to come out of our research portfolio.

Okay, and then do you envision a day where UH might be issuing its its own degrees in the field of AI?

Absolutely. I think at UH Manoa right now they just approved an AI degree. So hopefully the rest of the campuses will follow.

Okay, thank you. Members, questions? All right, thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Vice Chair.

Carry on to the next bill. House Bill 549. This is relating to an Early Learning Apprenticeship Grant Program.

This Bill establishes an Early Learning Apprenticeship Grant Program. to be administered by UH to provide financial support for Early Learning Program Service Providers in the state, to participate in state or federally approved Early Learning Apprenticeship Programs. Requires an annual report to the Legislature and appropriates funds.

Up first, we have Dean Murata, with the University of Hawaii College of Education.

Hi, good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of Committee. Nathan Murata, Dean, College of Education, UH Manoa. We—I stand in support of my testimony and I'm available for questions. Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Dean.

Up next, we have the Executive Office on Early Learning. Yuuko Arikawa-Cross, testifying in support.

Hi, Chair Garrett, Vice Chair Amato, and Members of the Committee. I'm Yuuko Arikawa-Cross, Director of the Executive Office on Early Learning. We stand on our written testimony, in support, and we defer to the University of Hawaii on implementation.

The Early Learning Registered Apprenticeship programs provide aspiring early childhood professionals with structured, hands-on experience, employer-paid classroom learning, and comprehensive support to advance their careers. EOEL welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with the University on the Grant award criteria and appreciates the Legislature's continued investment in our Keiki, our families, and our workforce.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you very much. Up next, Sitting County of Honolulu Department of Community Services, Director Krucky, or designee, testifying in support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, and Members of the Committee, Jordana Ferreira, on behalf of Director Krucky with DCS. We stand on our written testimony, in strong support of the Bill. Happy to answer any questions. Mahalo.

Okay, thank you. Up next, University of Hawaii Manoa, College of Education, Terry Lock, testifying in support.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, and Members of the Committee. I, I, I'm here to stand in support of this particular Bill and also here to answer any questions. But in my testimony, I wrote a short little paragraph about an apprentice that I was able to interview before, before today. So, I just want to read that.

First of all, as the Director of the Early Childhood Education Educator Excellence and Equity Project, at the University of Hawaii College of Education, I supported—through our funding, we were able to support Honolulu Community College and Keiki O Ka ‘ Āina Family Learning Centers, in launching our first state—our state's first Early Childhood Education Registered Apprenticeship Program, through KOKA in the summer of 2023.

Recently, I spoke to one of KOKA's apprentices. She is employed as an Aide at KOKA's Kapua Preschool, located in Maili, Oahu. With strong support from her husband and her four boys, and all those ages—14,11, 10, and 5—she enrolled in her first ECE course at Honolulu Community College in 2023, in the academic year 2023-'24.

And she shared with me, "To be in a job where I'm going to school has made a huge difference. This Apprenticeship Program fits the type of learner that I am. I love that I get to apply what I learned from my mentor and my college instructors, while interacting with preschool children."

She also credits her very encouraging instructors at HonCC. She is on target to complete her first of three milestones. A Child Development Associate, a nationally recognized credential, in May 2025. Her goal is to be a Preschool Lead Teacher or open her own family childcare home. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Up next, Early Childhood Action Strategy. Vivian Eto, testifying in support.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, and Members of the Committee. I'm Vivian Eto, with Early Childhood Action Strategy, here in strong support of this measure. We'll stand on our written testimony, and I'll be available for any questions. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Up next, Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks. Chevelle Davis, testifying in support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Mahalo for hearing this measure. We stand on our written testimony, in strong support.

Thank you. Up next, the Department of the Attorney General. Not present. Members, note that they provided comments. That's all that we have—oh, no, I stand corrected. Let's see, I'm going to butcher this name, but Philomer Felicitas. Not present. Thank you. Testifying in support. Kristen Zulli. Thank you. That's all we have registered to testify.

Is there anyone in the room wishing to do so? Anyone via Zoom? Seeing none. Members, questions? House Bill 549. Members, just please note that we do have several dozen testimony in support, from various individuals throughout the state. Okay, seeing no questions. We'll move on to our second to last Bill. House Bill 1172, relating to departmental data sharing.

This bill adds a Department of Taxation to the list of state agencies sharing data through the statewide longitudinal data system, allows the Department of Taxation to provide the University of Hawaii and other state agencies certain wage data. Up first, we have the Department of Taxation testifying in support.

Good afternoon, Chair. Vice Chair. Winston Wong on behalf of the Department of Taxation and Director Gary Suganuma. The department has provided written comments in support of this bill. We stand on those comments and I'll be available for questions thereafter.

I just do want to reiterate that the only concerns that we did have with this bill were the protection of confidential taxpayer information. And this bill appears to have done that with its current language. Thank you.

Okay, great. Thank you. Up next, University of Hawaii System VP Halbert testifying in support.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, Vice President Debora Halbert. We stand in support of the bill and stand on our written testimony. As was just alluded to. We acknowledge that the data that would be sharing is not personal information, but is aggregated and I can't say that word anyway.

And it also speaks to the bill that will be speaking to next about how we can report on postgraduate outcomes. So we're very supportive.

Thank you. Great, thank you. Up next, Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education. Stephen Schatz testifying in support.

Good afternoon. Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, Stephen Schatz from Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education. I stand on our written testimony in support of this bill.

Okay, thank you very much. Up next, via Zoom, Tax Foundation of Hawaii providing comments.

Yes, good afternoon chair, members of the committee. Jade McMillen on behalf of Tom Yamachika for the Tax Foundation of Hawaii. We have submitted comments on the measure. We have no objections as long as individual taxpayer privacy is respected. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much. Members, that's all that we have signed up to testify. Please note that we do have testimony and opposition from one individual. Is there anyone in the room wishing to testify? Hospital 1172. Anyone via Zoom? Seeing none. Members, questions?

Okay, moving on to our last Bill of the day, House Bill 1320 relating to education.

This Bill requires the University of Hawaii system to collect, analyze and publicly report certain graduate outcome data, requires inappropriate monies for the development and maintenance of a Graduate Outcomes Dashboard, appropriate monies for 2.0 FTE positions within the University of Hawaii's Office of the Vice President of Academic Strategy, and requires annual reports to the Legislature.

Our only testifier in this Bill is the University of Hawaii System VP Halbert testifying in support with comments.

Good afternoon again, Debora Halbert, Vice President for Academic Strategy. We stand on our written testimony in support and happy to answer questions on this. You have our testimony and so I'm sure that we can have a conversation if you have other questions. Thanks.

Okay, thank you very much. Is there anyone in the room wishing to testify on House Bill 1320? Seeing none. Anyone via Zoom? Seeing none as well. Members, questions? I have one question for VP Halbert, if you don't mind. Coming back up. Could you operationalize House Bill 1320 without House Bill 1172 that we just heard?

Yes, we can. But as noted, some of the data that is available through the Department of Taxation in aggregate form would be useful in getting better data for what we're doing here, if that makes sense.

So, as noted in the testimony on the prior Bill, there are some elements of employment in the state that are difficult to access without access to the Department of Taxation data.

Okay, thanks for confirming that. Members, any other questions? If not, well, that was a 30 minute hearing. We will recess for decision making and give fellow higher ed Members who are watching via YouTube a few minutes to come down to participate in the decision making. Recess.

Members, thank you for a very smooth hearing today. Up first, we have House Bill 223 relating to pharmacy. The Chair's recommendation? Well, the Chair notes we did have testimony from the Hawaii Pharmacists Association regarding suggested fee amounts, the license fee amounts that might Fund this, as well as perhaps striking out the loans and grants.

But we're going to leave those amounts blank for the time being. So the only recommendation in terms of the HT1 is to insert a defective date of July 1, 3000 for the purposes of facilitating further discussion. Members, any questions, comments, discussion? Okay, Vice Chair of the vote, please. HD1.

All right, thank you, Chair. We're voting on HB223. Chair and Vice Chair both vote aye. Chair's recommendation. Sorry, I forgot. Is to pass with amendments. Chair. Vice Chair, both vote aye. [Roll Call] Thank you, Chair. Your recommendation is adopted.

Great. Thank you, Members. Up Next, House Bill 940 relating to the University of Hawaii at Hilo. This is the one that appropriates funds for the rat lungworm lab at UH Hilo. For this Bill, we are going to move it out with an HD one.

However, we are going to remove the appropriation that's currently listed and we'll ask the Next Committee, which is Finance, to determine the appropriate amount. But in the Committee report, we will reflect the amount that is currently in the Bill, which is $500,000, I believe.

And secondly, we will insert a defective date of July 1, 3000 for purposes of facilitating further discussion. Members, any questions, comments?

I just want to say thank you, Chair, for moving this out. I have friends who have been personally affected by rat lung worms, so this is incredibly important to me and my community. Thank you.

Very welcome, Members. Any other discussion? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote, please. HD1.

All right, thank you, Chair. Voting on HB940. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair voting aye and noting the presence of all Members. Are there any Members voting? No. Any Members with reservations? Thank you, Chair. Your recommendation is adopted.

Okay. Thank you, Members. Next Bill. House Bill 546 relating to artificial intelligence. And thank you, VP Cirmos, for participating in our info briefing a few days ago on this very important topic of AI. The Chair's recommendation is to move this forward with an HD one again just to give flexibility to the Finance Committee.

We are going to delete the appropriations in both Section 3 and 4, as well as the FTEs, and we'll leave those blank. And finally, we'll insert a defective date of July 1, 3000 to facilitate further discussions. And again, we will note in the Committee report the amounts recommended in the original form in terms of the Appropriation and the FTEs.

Members, any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote, please. HD1.

Thank you, Chair. Voting on HB546. Chair's recommendations passed with amendments. Any Members voting no? Any Members with reservations? Seeing none. Thank you, Chair. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair and Members. Up next is House Bill 549 relating to an early learning apprenticeship grant program. Want to thank the several dozen Members of the community who submitted testimony in this Bill. Want to, of course, acknowledge our lieutenant Governor and the great progress she's making with the Ready Keiki initiative.

But as everyone in this room knows, you know, building facilities is one thing, but we've got to have this workforce to support it. So I'm really excited about the prospects of this apprenticeship program. We did receive testimony from the Attorney General's Office noting that. Excuse me. Suggesting that we declare that this is a matter of statewide concern.

This addresses any concerns about, uh, autonomy. So we will add that at the end of Section 1, it will read as follows. "The Legislature declares that the establishment of an early learning apprenticeship grant program is a matter of statewide concern." Does that work for the Attorney General? I'm getting a thumbs up, so we'll proceed with that.

Members, I'll note that the appropriation is already blank in the Bill. We will have the proposals to include a defective date of July 1, 3000 to facilitate further discussion. We will also be making some technical, non substantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style. Consistency of style. Thank you, Members. Any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none.

Vice Chair for The vote, please. HD1.

Thank you, Chair. Voting on HB 549. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments. Are there any Members voting no? Any Members who have reservations? Seeing none. Thank you, Chair. Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair, Members. Up Next, House Bill 1172 relating to departmental data sharing. A pretty straightforward Bill. Recommendation here is to pass as an HD1 with a defective date of July 1, 3000 to facilitate further discussion. Members, any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote, please, HD1.

Thank you, Chair. Voting on HB 1172. Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments noting the continued presence of all Members. Are there any Members voting no. Or with reservations, seeing none. Thanks, Chair, Your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair and Members, last but not least, House Bill 1320 relating to education. This is the one that requires the, uh, system to report certain graduate outcome data. We do note in the testimony from the University that there may be a concern about disaggregating the data.

But I believe the language in the Bill itself, it does say when possible or something to that effect. So I think they're covered in that sense. So what we'll do in this. HD1 was blank out the FTEs insert a defective date of 7-1-3000 to facilitate further discussion and some technical, non substantive amendments.

And I will note that the appropriation is currently blank and it will remain so. Members, any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote, please. HD1.

Voting on HB 1320. Chair's recommendation is passed with amendments. Any Members voting no? Any Members with reservations? Thank you, Chair. Your recommendation is adopted.

Okay. Thank you Members, for helping me get through my very first hearing as a Chair.

You did a great job, Chair.

meeting as a chair.