House Standing Committee on Finance

Okay, we're going to convene the Committee on Finance for our first agenda. 10 o'clock agenda. First up is House Bill 133 HD2 relating to surfing. Vice Chair.

First up, we have the Governor Sports Task Force in support.

Good morning, Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takenouchi, and Members of the House Committee on Finance. I'm Keith Amemiya and I'm here in my capacity as the chair of the governor's sports task force. And I'm testifying in strong support of House Bill 133.

I've already submitted written testimony, but I wanted to address two issues that have been raised by those who oppose the Bill or have concerns about the Bill. The first is safety and the second is cost.

In terms of safety I don't know if any of you were in the Legislature 23 years ago, but we fought the same fight to have outrigger canoe paddling approved as a high school sport. Safety and costs were raised as concerns. Those were sufficiently addressed.

We had a lot of support from the outrigger canoe associations to get high school canoe paddling kick started. We're going to have the same support from the surfing community across the state in terms of ensuring safety and making sure that surfing is as successful and safe as as possible.

We already have surfing in the Maui Interscholastic League as Chair Yamashita knows very well. Mr. Kim Ball has overseen surfing for the Maui Interscholastic League for the last 10 years. He's done a wonderful job with the support of the surfing community and fortunately there have been no serious injuries in MIL surfing.

And I'm confident that if surfing is made it statewide high school sport, we will mitigate the safety concerns as much as possible, just like we've done with outrigger canoe paddling in terms of cost similar to outrigger canoe paddling.

We're going to enlist the support of the surfing community, corporate sponsors and others to minimize the cost to put together these surfing events. We've already got commitments from people like professional surfer Carissa Moore who will enlist her sponsors to support surfing as best as possible.

And just like canoe paddling, when it comes to running events, we're going to get the support of volunteers in the surfing community who run surf meets to help run the high school meets at free or limited cost. Now, I asked Kim Ball to put together a budget for an entire season of high school surfing throughout the state.

And I don't know what the protocol is, but I do have copies for the Committee that I can either, oh, can someone help me distribute it, please, while it's being passed around? As I mentioned, this is based on the Maui Interscholastic League surfing budget. It is a total for statewide surfing of approximately $685,000 and $685,870 per year.

Given the amount of surfers that will participate in high school surfing, I submit to you that I feel that this is a reasonable amount. The benefits far outweigh the disadvantages, and this is something that's been in the works for over 10 years.

There's broad support, as you saw by the written testimony provided by surfing enthusiasts across the state. And so I humbly ask that you consider supporting the funding of surfing as an official high school Sport for the 25-26 school year.

The last point that I want to add is that outrigger canoe paddling took 10 years to be approved as a sport. And hopefully surfing will only take 10 years to be approved as a sport beginning this year.

But the mechanism and the will to have a sport approved is there if there is enough interest and support, including from the Department of Education. And I know there's a lot of representatives from the DOE here. I was involved in pushing to have girls flag football approved as a high school sport.

There was a lot of interest statewide similar to surfing and outrigger canoe paddling. We were able to enlist the support of the corporate community, the NFL. So far we've raised over $200,000 in money, uniforms and other in kind donations. And lo and behold, we're going to have high school girls flag football beginning this spring.

And I think practices and tryouts have already started and competition will start next March. That process from beginning to end to approval by the Department of Education and the HHSA took three months. So my point is it doesn't have to take 10 years for a sport as important as surfing to be approved.

And I humbly ask for your funding. Thank you. Any questions?

Take questions at the end.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry, Aloha Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takenouchi and Members of the Committee. I'm Teri Ushijima, Assistant Superintendent of the Office of Curriculum, Instructional Design, testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The Department stands on its written testimony which provides comments on this measure.

Next up, we have Department of Education Superintendent Hayashi or his designee.

And thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next we have Hawaiian Lifeguard Association in support.

Good morning, Chair Yamashita and Members of the Committee. My name is Kirsten Hermstad. I'm the Executive Director of the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association. We're a statewide nonprofit that supports drowning and aquatic injury prevention. Although we are statewide, I am from Kauai, as is our President. And so I flew in this morning to talk to you in person.

I will be giving testimony on another Bill today. So for now, we stand in support of the surfing in schools and stand on my written testimony, and I'm available for questions.

Thank you. Next, we have Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation on Zoom.

Aloha. I'm Sarah Fairchild, the Executive Director of the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation, and we're also part of the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition. We support surfing, interscholastic surfing, because it will increase the level of competition in water sports and allow a lot of kids in public schools, particularly to try this sport and get better at it.

And like Kirsten said, to increase their water safety competency. I'd like to add that the DOE already approved this sport and created extensive safety rules for it. This Bill is really just about getting some funding to get enough teams online to reach the thresholds to have three tournaments, triggering HHSAA to have a statewide tournament. Thank you.

Thank you. That's all the people who checked in. There's about seven other organizations with comments in support, about 30 individuals who also submitted written testimony in support. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom?

Sorry.

Hey, I'd like to testify. Can you hear me?

Yes, please state your name for the record and proceed.

Inaudible- on Maui. Sorry, I'm having trouble hearing, but I'm here basically to answer questions. Somebody from the DOE has reached out to me once concerning our season. We've completed 10 full seasons. We would have had two more if it wasn't for Covid.

We've done nearly 50 events, never had a concussion, never had a fracture, never had dislocation at any of our contests. I'm sure if you compare any other Sport that had 50 events, events, football, soccer, wrestling, whatever, you wouldn't see the same thing. We have 12 high schools currently competing. When we started in 2014, we had eight.

And just- and just to go back to what Keith Amemiya said, It's not 10 years. This was passed in 2011. In October, that State Board of Education approved surfing as an interscholastic sport. And still we only have one surf league in the whole state. And we've proved it successful. We've proved it's safe. We prove there's interest.

I mean, we're going to train up probably 200 young high school lifeguards this year because the training they have to go through. Our coaches are the only ones that have in any sport that have to go through the kind of training that to get certified to coach.

And as far as CPR, lifeguard, ocean risk assessment, taking open ocean swimming test, time swimming test, they learned life saving skills and ocean rescue, they transfer this onto their students. So we talk about trying to mitigate drownings in the state. This is the best way and the cheapest way. We're doing it for free.

As far as the budget that wasn't based on our budget because we do it much cheaper here. You know, I run the events, I get a lot of volunteers, I pay ocean safety, I pay judges and then I guess some outside sponsorship.

But those are based on what it costs to run meets on Oahu because you have, I'm not sure Sarah probably knows better than me but you probably have 15 to 20 high school clubs that are doing club which is even harder because club level you have no access to athletic trainers.

You get no recognitions at school and athletic banquets, no classic athlete awards. You know, you're like a stepsister at school. If you're on a surf club, you get none of the amenities of being an actually interscholastic sport. So that, that being said, I'm sorry, I'm a little passionate about it because we've been doing it for so long.

But I, I plugged in what the Oahu numbers are and they're a lot more than what we are. But I understand, you know, some people don't do it for free, it's more like a business. But they're professionals, they know what they're doing and it's time that we have it. I think for if it's $685,000 that's pretty cheap.

Just train 200 lifeguards on Maui and and more on the rest of the state. So thank you for allowing me to testify.

Thank you. Was there another person on Zoom wishing to testify?

Good morning Chair, Vice Chair, community Members. I'm strong, I'm strongly in support of this Bill. Let me be short but brief. But we have.

Sorry, could you state your name for the record?

This is Kaili Swan. Let me go on. Sorry, my name is Kaili. I'm in strong supporter of this measure. Let me talk about the program that we're offering and short and brief. The program we have, we call Surfers Healing is based out of in California. So we teach people disability how to surf. It's free.

The Surfers Healing is a non profit organization that teaches Children with autism to Surf. It was founded by Israel and Dorian Paskowitz for the benefit of the son Isaiah Paskowitz, who was diagnosed with autism at age 3. Surfers Healing seek to enrich lives of people living with autism by exposing them to surfing.

The surf camp is free of charge to autistic children and include camp in Hawaii, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island and Puerto Rico. In August 2012, Surfers Healing expanded into Toronto, Canada for first time, Organized by Aloha Toronto was annual week weekend beach festival inspired by Surfers Healing.

The- the Kelly Slater Foundation is supporting of Surfers Healing. Thanks for listening to my measure and I hope this Bill passed. Thank you. This is my testimony. Please let me know if you have any question you may have. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom wishing to testify?

Okay, thank you very much. Members, questions? Okay. Representative.

A quick question for Mr. Amemiya. In your capacity in the past, with the $700,000 price tag, how does that compare to other interscholastic sports across the state?

Excuse me. It compares favorably with other sports in the sense that it's the same cost, if not cheaper than other sports. Sports like football are much more expensive. Surfing is one of the cheaper sports in terms of total outlay.

Would you say like in the bottom third, bottom half?

I would say bottom 25%.

And I don't know if you know the answer, but based on this budget, what is the capacity for students to participate in terms of numbers?

Well, Kim ball, is I still still on Zoom. He may be better to answer that, but we projected the same amount or proportionate amount of surfers throughout the state that the Maui Interscholastic League currently has and just extrapolated it based on MIL. Based on the MIL and their 10 years of having surfing as a sport.

Can I ask him? Yeah, please. Hey, Kim ball, it's Mike Lee. What are the numbers you've had maybe average per year at the MIL through surfing?

I think this year with the where the numbers are coming in from the twelve high schools, it'll be over 200 kids, maybe 250. I mean, just because they have a surf team, they don't allow everybody to surf. They have to pass, you know, a time swim test and have some capability. So, but yeah, that's just mil.

And you're talking what 60-70 high schools in the state. I don't know how many would have surfing, but certainly ILH is giving me indication that they. They have 19 schools ready to go next year. That's what they've said. So that's that's all I can tell you for us.

Thanks, Mr. Ball. Thanks, Mr. Amemiya.

Thank you.

Thank you. Further questions, Members? Thank you. We'll move on to the next Bill. House Bill 904, HD1. Vice Chair.

Okay, we have testimony and support from the Hawaii State Board of Education and one individual, both of whom did not indicate they would be here. Any Members in the public wishing to testify? Any Members on Zoom?

Okay, thank you very much, Members. Questions or nobody to ask questions to. Okay, we'll move on to the next Bill. House Bill 1065, HD1. Vice Chair.

First up, we have the State of Hawaii Early Learning Board on Zoom.

Aloha. From Maui. I'm Elaine Yamashita, no relation to Chair. I'm the Chair of the Early Learning Board. And the Early Learning Board stands on its testimony. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next, we have the Executive Office on Early Learning.

Hi, Chair Yamashita and Vice Chair Takenouchi, Members of the Committee. I'm Yuuko Arikawa-Cross, Director of the Executive Office on Early Learning. We stand in strong support on HB 1065, and I thank the Committee for hearing this Bill. This Bill is a housekeeping measure that does not contain an appropriation and has no significant fiscal impact.

In 2021, Act 210 established the Hawaii Early Childhood Educator Stipend Program to address the shortage of qualified early childhood educators in Hawaii. The act specified that recipients of the stipends who do not satisfy the requirements of the program must repay the stipend funds.

It also added a new section to HRS establishing the Hawaii Early Childhood Educator Special Fund into which any repaid stipend funds were to be deposited. However, Act 210 also specified that the special fund shall be abolished and repealed on June 30, 2023. As a result, the Fund was abolished in 2023 and is no longer in use.

HB 1065 deletes section 302L-10 HRS, which established the Early Childhood Educator Special Fund and redirects any stipend funds repaid by a stipend recipient to the Early Learning Special Fund instead. Thank you.

Thank you. We also received testimony from one individual in support. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay. Members, questions? Seeing none, we'll move on to the next bill. House Bill 429, HD 1. Vice Chair.

First up, we have the Early Learning Board in support on Zoom.

Aloha again. The Early Learning Board stands on its testimony. Elaine Yamashita for the Early Learning Board. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next, we have the Executive Office on Early Learning.

Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takenouchi, and Members of the Committee. I'm Yuuko Arikawa-Cross, Director of the Executive Office on Early Learning. The Executive Office on Early Learning is strong, is in strong support of HB 429. We thank you. We thank you to the House Majority Caucus for introducing this bill. EOEL works in partnership with the Hawaii State Department of Education to administer 92 public pre-K classrooms and 74 Hawaii DOE campuses across our state.

The funding and positions in this bill will allow EOEL to add an additional 50 classrooms over the next two years and continue our trajectory of growth initiated by the Lieutenant Governor's Ready Keiki initiative. We also want to note that the funding in this bill was also included in the Governor's biennium budget request. We appreciate our EOEL principals and other supporters who submitted testimony. We appreciate the Legislature's continued investment in our youngest keiki and their families and respectfully request your support of this funding. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have the Hawaii State Public Charter School Commission.

Aloha, Chair and Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is PJ Foehr, the Deputy Director, speaking on behalf of Dr. Ed Noh and the State Public Charter School Commission. We stand on our written support and written testimony submitted in support of this bill and look forward to working with everyone involved.

Thank you. Next, we have the Hawaii State Teachers Association. Thank you. Testimony in support. We also received written testimony and support from the Lieutenant Governor and 16 other organizations indicating all in support, as well as one individual. Is there anyone else in the room I didn't call wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Members questions?

Okay, thank you very much. We'll move on to the next bill, House Bill 754, HD 1. Vice Chair.

First up, Department of Education.

Good afternoon, Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takenouchi. This is Heidi Armstrong, Department of Education, and we stand on our written testimony offering comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have the Hawaii State Teachers Association. Thank you. Standing in support. That's all the people who indicated they would be here. We do have a number of organizations and individuals all in support. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Just come up and state your name for the record.

Hi. Jen Masutani with the Hawaii After School Alliance. Chair, Vice Chair, Members of Committee, I'd like to testify in support of HB 754. Community schools in Hawaii is a growing movement and has received increasing interest over the last few years. We now have 26 community schools this year across Oahu, Lanai, Molokai, and Hawaii Island.

And while our community schools are still early on in its journey, we have made some exciting progress, and I wanted to share a couple examples. For one, the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind has students from neighbor islands storming on campus. And for the last 20 years, they only received cold meals for their dinner.

But thanks to their coordinator, they were able to reach out to community partners and now they actually have hot meals for dinner. Dole Middle School is another great example. They've created many community partnerships with Chaminade and Rotary to provide after school tutoring, and partnerships with Project Vision, Kalihi-Palama Center, and Hawaii Keiki to ensure that all of their students have access to dental, mental, physical health, and vision services.

And because of their whole child approach in their Strive Higher report for last school year, they saw increases in their regular attendance, language arts proficiency, math proficiency, and science proficiency. And we've also seen improvements in school climate, discipline, attendance, and teacher retention across many of our other schools.

Through the community school strategy and the role of the coordinator, our school gets extra capacity and support to align resources and services to address the challenges our students and families face and ultimately help the school achieve its goals to improve outcomes for students. So we ask for your support of HB 754 to ensure that our current community schools can sustain their current efforts and support our students and families. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else on... Anybody else in the room? Any members on Zoom wishing to testify?

Members, questions? Okay, thank you very much. We'll move on to the next bill, House Bill 624, HD1. Vice Chair.

First up, Department of Education.

Good afternoon again, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Heidi Armstrong, Department of Education, and we stand on our written testimony in support of this measure. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Hawaii Psychological Association.

Aloha. Good morning, Chair and Vice Chair. I'm Alex Lichton. I'm the Legislative Chair of the Hawaii Psychological Association. We're just simply asking for an amendment to include the Hawaii Psychological Association as members of the working group to look at the licensing of school psychologists.

I think in order for the working group to be successful and finally achieve the licensing of school psychologists, it is important to have all the relevant stakeholders in the working group. And given that previous proposals have been to license school psychologists under the Board of Psychology, that certainly would make us a relevant stakeholder.

We have an interest in looking at the scope of practice, making sure that's adequately defined and that it lines up with training. And then we'd like to provide input into which is the appropriate supervisory regulatory mechanism. Should it be Department of Education or DCCA, and what would that look like?

We have a track record of working productively with other mental health professionals. We're in coalition right now. We share lobbyists with three other organizations. And we would certainly look forward to working constructively with other members of the working group if you could please include us. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Thank you. Next, we have Hawaii Association of School Psychologists on Zoom.

Hi. Aloha. My name is Leslie Baunach. I'm the current Legislative Chair for the Hawaii Association of School Psychologists. We're a little bit confused why the Hawaii Psych Association or any private organization that doesn't represent school psychologists would want to be involved. You know, like the California Psych Association represents school psychologists, so that would make sense.

But the Hawaii Psychological Association excludes school psychologists, so it's really bizarre to us why a private organization would want to have a say in our bills. We're very comfortable working with the clinical psychologists who have already been elected or appointed to the Psychological Association.

And we think that their voices will be plenty to represent the the clinical psychologists there as well as the other members who have already been recommended to the Committee. This is something I've been working on. I think I wrote the first draft of the bill in 2014. So I am happy to answer any and all questions around our bill. And thank you so much for allowing me to testify today.

Thank you. Next we have Alec. Alec Marentic on Zoom.

Mahalo. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. I just want to supplement my written testimony with two pieces of information. First, I saw some testimony that noted that only one state regulates school psychologists through their Board of Psychology. And I just wanted to note that Louisiana, New Hampshire, Texas, Virginia, Ohio, and West Virginia all regulate school psychologists through their State Board of Examiners.

I also want to note that we as school psychologists are directly named in CMS for school based Medicaid claiming, and licensing us would allow the DOE to bill Medicaid for our services, which would provide additional mental health funding and support for our schools. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm sorry, do we also have the Board of Psychology. Please. Sorry about that.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Thank you. My name is Christopher Fernandez, Executive Officer for the Board of Psychology. I'm here to stand on the Board's written testimony supporting the measure. Thank you.

Thank you. Members, also three other organizations and four individuals all in support who indicated they would not be able to be here today. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, Members, questions? Okay. Thank you very much. We'll move on to the next bill, House Bill 637, HD 1. Vice Chair.

First up, Department of Education in support.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Heidi Armstrong, Department of Education, and we stand on our written testimony in support. Thank you.

Thank you. We also have the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities in support.

Aloha, Chair. Sorry. Aloha, Chairs, Committee Members. My name is Che Silvert. I'm with the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities. We'll stand our written testimony in support. We just wanted to add. I'm an individual who has dyslexia. I was born and raised here. I went to our public schools. I wasn't diagnosed till I was 25. I even went to our public schools until fifth grade where I was found to be able not to be able to read, and even with that evidence, still didn't get a diagnosis. So this bill could help a lot of people. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have HawaiiKidsCAN in support.

Aloha, Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takenouchi. My name is Erica Nakanishi-Stanis. I'm from HawaiiKidsCAN. We stand on our written testimony in strong support of this bill and ask you to please help us become not the only state in the country that does not require dyslexia sensitive screening for our students. Thank you.

Thank you. We also received written testimony from about six other organizations and three individuals, all in support but indicating they wouldn't be able to be here. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, Members, any questions? Thank you very much. We'll move on to the next bill, House Bill 961, HD 1. Vice Chair.

First up, Department of Education with comments.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Teri Ushijima again representing the Department of Education. The Department stands on its written testimony which provides comments on this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next, we have the Hawaii State Teachers Association in support.

Aloha, Chair and Vice Chair. My name is Sarah Milianta-Laffin and on behalf of the Hawaii State Teachers Association. Really excited to see this bill. Librarians are intellectual freedom fighters, and it was shocking to me to learn that only... I'm a teacher. And only 20% of our Hawaii public schools actually have actual librarians.

And if you're not aware, librarians have library science degrees, so they have advanced degrees in information studies. And it's really critical. So when I got to my school, Ilima Intermediate in Ewa Beach in 2017, I asked my department chair, I was like, hey, I want to do this lesson. I want to co-teach with the librarian. And she kind of laughed at me. She was like, we don't have a librarian. I was like, what kind of middle school doesn't have a librarian? It just didn't even occur to me that was a possibility.

And what it seems, because of budget constrictions, a lot of schools opt to hire someone to use the checker router gun, you know, to scan the library books, as opposed to having somebody who's curating the information. And school librarians play a vital role in fostering literacy, critical thinking, and a love for learning among students.

They provide access to a diverse range of books, resources, and they help students develop strong reading skills that are essential for academic success. And plus, right now, just being honest, while we're sitting with dealing with a lot of the changes to technology, librarians help with that too. With using AI ethically, with addressing misinformation, and just fostering that level of learning and that safe space for being a library. All schools should have a school librarian, so please support this.

Thank you. We also have Meera Garud on Zoom.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, and Members of the Committee. Mahalo for allowing this opportunity to provide testimony. My name is Meera Garud, and I'm just delighted to see all of the testimony that's been submitted in support. I wanted to add a couple of comments. Just like I heard from the representative from HSTA, I've heard a number of principals decide that they made the tough choice of removing the school librarian position due to funding.

And as many of the testifiers provided in their comments, the impact of this on the students and also the teachers is really profound, where it's harder to plan lessons and provide the resources that students need to complete their projects. And some of the testifiers have said that they've seen.

So these are librarians in public or college libraries, and they see teachers come to them asking for the support because they don't have that at their school. So I do think that investing the funding in this bill would allow for us to move towards all students having access to school librarians. I did have a question.

My testimony, if it's possible to check on the data. Data in 2023 provided by DOE showed that it's 63 schools that had a certified librarian, so 24%. But the data in this bill states 75 schools. So if that data could be confirmed, that would be great. Mahalo for this opportunity.

Thank you. We have two other organizations and about 15 individuals, all in support, who indicated they would not be able to be here. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom? Go ahead. Please state your name for the record and proceed.

Chair, this is Kaili Swan. I'm in strong support of this bill because we have only one. We have James Campbell High School only has state libraries, but it's, but it's considered off campus library system. But the students use their libraries at James, at the, at the school itself. So can you please pass this measure, and please let me know if you have any question about this measure. Thank you. So thank you for letting me, allowing me to testify.

Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom wishing to testify?

Okay, Members, any questions? Vice Chair.

Okay. For Department of Education, please. Hi, thanks for being here.

Teri Ushijima.

So the part of the comments about the potential issue with hiring the qualified the certified librarian, could you tell me a little bit more? So the new hire list, is that just curated year round though? Is there like a certain timing for the new hire list versus the transfers?

So there's a transfer period where the department teachers are able to look at the openings and apply and see if they could get a position elsewhere if they wish to do so. And once that closes, that happens in the spring. So given the schedule of the legislative process, we would likely know the results, I think in the summer. And if we were to hire in the summer, there's a list, but that list is not open for teacher transfer unless... This is from my experience hiring teachers for our distance learning program.

We had to go to the new hire list, which may or may not include certified librarians. And when we checked on the number of potential graduates from school library, it seems like they're struggling also. So if this were to pass, we would want to do our best to make sure to comply and get the benefits that it's intended to.

The new hire list is curated year round though.

It's ongoing. Right? Oh, sorry. Yeah, I think so.

Okay. No, thank you. We'll tell the supporters of this bill to watch for the new hire list as this moves forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Further questions, Members? Okay. Representative Lee Loy.

Maybe for DOE again. This bill calls for librarian on Oahu and then one other neighbor island. I was just curious how you were going to be making that determination on which neighbor island.

I think that would be part of our task to come up with criteria and to look at existing schools where the complex might be most in need. We've done a similar project trial before and that was on the Big Island. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Representative Reyes Oda.

Question for the DOE, but to Superintendent Hayashi specifically. Thank you. At Waipahu High School, prior to your departure to be Superintendent, did you have a librarian?

Let's see. When I had left Waipahu High School, I believe we did not have a librarian.

Okay. Was that because of funding issues or what was the reason why you didn't have a librarian?

Those were a number of issues related to personnel, which I wouldn't be able to go into here.

Okay. And then can I guess I can ask him. When it was mentioned about teacher transfer period, is that just a DOE policy or is that something that is could be discussed or negotiated with the Teachers Union?

Let me check on that one second just to be sure.

Thank you for the question, Representative. Currently, right now, in the Hawaii State Teachers... Oh, Sean Bacon, Assistant Superintendent. Currently, right now, in the collective bargaining agreement with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, there's criteria of when the teacher assignment and transfer period occurs with dates and time periods that has currently been negotiated. Yes.

So it could. The teacher transfer period could be changed in the future, should both sides agree to it?

That could be a possibility.

Thank you very much. Further questions, Members? Thank you. We'll move on to the next bill, House Bill 962, HD 1. Vice Chair.

First up, Department of Education with comments.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Teri Ushijima testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The Department stands on its written testimony which provides comments on this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next, Hawaii State Teachers Association in support. Thank you. Next, we have Meera Garud on Zoom.

Aloha. Very similar bill to the previous one. My name is Meera Garud. And I just wanted to add a few comments about how this bill would basically be an expanded version and allow all the schools that currently do not have a school librarian to try this program and see what happens when a school librarian is available on their campus. I did hear the previous comments from the last bill.

Just wanted to add a couple of my insights about the difficulty with recruiting new school librarians because there's no requirement for a school to have a librarian. I know a number of people who opt to not add that certification because they're not going to be sure that they will have a position. And it's very, you know, if that position gets cut, would they get moved into the classroom? So there's a number of issues there. So just wanted to add that comment, and happy to answer any questions too. Mahalo.

Thank you. Members, again, two other organizations in support, as well as about 15 individuals, all in support. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, Members, any questions? Thank you very much. We'll move on to the next bill, House Bill 683, HD 1. Vice Chair.

First up, we have Department of Education with comments.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Dean Uchida, Deputy Superintendent with DOE. We stand on our written comments on this bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Hawaii State Teachers Association in support.

Aloha, Chair and Vice Chair. Sarah Milianta-Laffin on behalf of the Hawaii State Teachers Association. I just want to illustrate as a teacher, as a teaching practitioner, the need for this. One, I was kind of surprised we didn't have a coordinator already. Right now, so I'm at Ilima Intermediate, Ewa Beach next to Campbell High School. So we have students who have to get a bus from Iroquois Point to come to us. That Iroquois bus is pretty much half an hour to 45 minutes late every day. And it's something we've worked and worked and worked and tried on this.

I will say, if you remember your schooling experience, the highlight of kids schooling in middle school is Spirit Week. And on Friday during Spirit Week, you have this big cheer off competition Friday morning. All of the Iroquois Point bus kids last year missed the cheer off competition because the bus was so late. The bus is also regularly like an hour to almost two hours after school to get them back to Iroquois Point, which kind of can lead to kids getting up to shenanigans, you know, at school. This is something that we really desperately need.

I will also say as a teacher who have brought students to this body to speak to you, it's $350 to get a bus to come to the Capitol and go back to Ewa Beach. And it is very hard and very tough to coordinate. Same thing with coordinating field trips. You have a very small window of what you're able to do with buses. Buses are a huge problem. We definitely need to get this under control, and we support this bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we also have three other organizations and two individuals, all in support, who indicated they would not be able to join us. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom? Oh, please go ahead. State your name for the record and proceed.

This is Kaili Swan. I'm supporting this bill because school transportation for students is very paramount in this, in this, in this measure. Maybe be brief, short and brief. The James Campbell High School, they use, they utilize HOLO program to use the city bus program to get to school where like they live far away the radius from the school.

So like when students catch the bus, go to school, they can catch the either bus, go to school. After school, students usually catch city bus, go home. The DOE pays for the HOLO program. Thanks for allowing me to testify and please let me know any question you may have. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom?

Okay, thank you. Questions, Members? Okay, thank you. We'll move on to the next bill, House Bill 424, HD 1. Vice Chair.

First up, Hawaii Department of Education with comments.

Morning again, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Dean Uchida with Department of Education. We stand on our written testimony providing comments on the bill. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next up, we have Hawaii State Teachers Association with comments.

Aloha, Chair and Vice Chair. Sarah Milianta-Laffin on behalf of the Hawaii State Teachers Association. So when it comes to this bill, the first thing I kind of wanted to share is we would be interested in an amendment similar to Senate Bill 1300, which would extend to ALICE families to try to see if we can get some more people involved in this program.

I need this board to understand that school meals are school supplies. Like, full stop. Like, that's one of the best weapons I have as an educator to make sure my kids are on level is that they get breakfast and lunch. And if you want to help us out, getting them breakfast and lunch would be huge when it comes to moving this forward. There are a lot of smart people in this room who have submitted testimony and who are going to tell you the facts and figures. You've had the facts and figures.

So please allow me to be the heart. So in my classroom, I keep chopsticks. I write a lot of DonorsChoose grants, which is to help get supplies for my classroom. And I keep chopsticks so the kids have something to eat. And a girl asked for a pair of chopsticks.

I gave her one, and she asked for three more. And I thought they were playing with them or messing around. And I look over and she has a Simon bowl, and there are four girls with four sets of chopsticks eating out of one Simon bowl. And to me, that picture is a policy failure.

If four kids are eating out of one bowl, they are hungry and we as the adults are not taking care of them to the point that the kids have learned how to care for each other by making sure that they can feed each other. Another example I'll give you is I had a student during COVID, meals were free. We fed kids during COVID And when they came back to school and they went to the cafeteria and realized they didn't get meals, the faces, the disappointment, it was really shocking.

As educators and as a teacher, I don't make a living wage, so providing food for kids is a really cost problem on my family. But also, I can't stand to see hungry kids. So I, like so many other teachers, are buying food for these kids who do not have. So boy, six foot tall, big boy.

Another kid brings this kid to me at lunch, and this kid is huffing and puffing and he is trying not to cry. And the boy looks over at me and says, miss, I brought him to your classroom because the lunch lady took away his tray because he had too much lunch debt and he couldn't eat today.

So that child was shamed in front of his peers, and that child was hungry, and that child was hurt. And the other kid knew, oh, Mili's got food. I'm gonna go ahead and feed that kid. And again, that example of that kid, I can see his face, like it doesn't leave me.

And that's a policy failure because we have to feed hungry kids. School meals are school supplies. I don't think this is the superior vehicle of the session. And I've been with kids in this building for four years trying to work on free and reduced lunch and making sure that hungry kids are fed.

I was a free lunch kid myself as the oldest of five kids to a single mother, our State President for HSTA, Osa Tui, who a lot of you have heard from, was also a free lunch kid. These programs work when we implement them correctly. And kids, we just got to feed hundred kids.

Thank you. Next we have Hawaii Public Health Institute in support.

Nate Hix, Hawaii Public Health Institute. Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. I want to echo everything that HSTA said, and I mean, can we take for a second to imagine that after this Committee hearing, lunch was brought in for all of us, but you individually were not able to eat.

How would that make you feel just because your parents didn't have the resources to be able to provide you food? Right. You're going to be ostracized amongst your family, amongst your friends, unable to enjoy the free time you have to enjoy lunch with your peers.

We have the opportunity to make sure that this doesn't happen, to make sure that all students have the ability to eat. Eight states have already done it. We did it for two years. This is a very small drop in the bucket when it comes to the finances. The DOE budget annually is about $2 billion.

The estimated loss in revenue by providing free school meals is around $20 million, or just 1% of the overall DOE budget. This is a literal drop in the bucket. This is something that we can provide, and I think we should, to make sure that again, our education system is robust as it is, as it can be, because again, school meals are school supplies. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next we have AlohaCare on Zoom in support. Okay, next we have Hawaii Food Industry Association on Zoom in support. Next we have Hawaii Appleseed in support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members. Daniela Spoto with Hawaii Appleseed. We stand in strong support of this measure. I want to note that this is the fourth year that similar legislation has been put before the Legislature. And last year this Committee had the opportunity to hear a similar bill that actually extended meals to free meals to all students, and it was able to pass through.

We believe that, you know, if government is going to do anything, it's to provide safety nets for those families that fall in the gap between those very low income thresholds and those ALICE families that we know are not being met by those safety net programs. And this is just, again, like others have said, something that's really important so that kids can succeed.

Making sure that every child has a healthy breakfast or lunch. We know that sometimes the meals that are provided at school are the only balanced meals that some students get in a day. They might get, you know, some dry saimin or a musubi or something like that.

But these meals are designed to contain certain amounts of protein, fruits, vegetables, and they are intended to be a balanced meal. So they're really important for those kids to succeed. I also want to apologize. There's a typo in our written testimony.

On the first chart it says our cost estimates, and the first chart on the right side there says reduced price students only. Those cost estimates are actually if we were to extend it to all students, including those that are currently on the full paid plan. So we estimate that that would be... Okay, no, I don't... I fixed it I believe. The full estimate is around 26 million, and the reduced price estimate, we're estimating is under half a million dollars. So please consider passing this bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Members, we also have nine other organizations in support and about 15 individuals providing comments and in support who indicated they would not be here with us today. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay. Members, any questions? Okay, Representative Grandinetti.

My question is for DOE. You mentioned in your testimony, you requested that the one quarter requirement remain as a floor rather than a ceiling. If provided with proper funding, is there any reason for this?

For the floor? I think, I think the floor is at, well the ceiling is at 50% right now. Right. And our current charges, I think we're like combined is at about 27%. So if we keep everything the same, lowering it to 25%, we would be meeting the requirement in the statute.

Okay, got it. And then we heard from, from HSTA that we have already provided universal free school meals during COVID. Again, if provided with proper funding, is there any reason we couldn't do that now?

Yeah, all it takes is money, right? So, yeah.

Okay. So with the money we could do it.

Right. We're trying to run the numbers now about how much that would cost the state.

Okay. And is there a disagreement among the estimates that were provided by the...

It's kind of complicated because you have the federal reimbursements and then you have CEP schools and it's kind of individually based. So trying to come up with a figure, dealing with individual schools and the different populations makes it really difficult. So we're trying to crank the numbers right now.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you. Further questions? You can stay. Anybody else? Okay. So, you know, at the end of the day, all of these things are come down to money. And as you stated, so we. And I'm just going to make, you know, sorry you had to be the guinea pig. But you know, yesterday we tried to do a bill that actually tried to create revenue by repealing all the tax credits that were suggested by the Auditor, as well as large ones, that a tax credit at the end of the day is a reduction in taxes.

You know, the solar credit is about $115 million. The film credit is about a $50 million credit. At the end of the day, the safety net is what I believe needs to be funded. But many times we fund these other credits that are not safety net priorities, and nobody testified in favor to try and generate revenue for these types of programs. Does the Department want to chime in at some point on these kind of things?

I have to defer that to the Superintendent.

Hello, Chair. Keith Hayashi, Superintendent. Thank you very much for those insights. I think we totally understand that and the Department that revenue to support programs is limited. We can definitely connect up with you on the side after the conference, the hearing.

But we do also realize that there are various needs within the Department of Education to support our students, and we're very grateful to the Legislature for providing those supports. And so I look forward to meeting with you offline on this meeting to see how we can continue to work together.

Okay. And I'm sorry to just bring it up for you guys, but at the end of the day, right, the pie is only so big. We have only so much money. We have to make choices. And I just believe that the safety net is what we should be funding. And nobody came out to support these bills that would actually find money for you. But anyway, thank you very much. Thank you. Members, any questions? Further questions? Okay, we're going to move on to the next bill, House Bill 1293, HD 1. Vice Chair.

First, we have the State Procurement Office in opposition.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, Bonnie Kahakui, administrator for the State Procurement Office. We oppose the language of this bill. The proposed language does not address the procedures for purchasing exceeding 25 to less than 100,000, which is contrary to the intent of the bill.

The SPO provided recommendations how we can simplify the process and also provides language to ensure compliance, accountability, and transparency. Thank you.

Dean Uchida, Deputy Superintendent. We stand on our written testimony providing comments on the bill, but we also support what the SPO just said, too. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Department of Education with comments.

Thank you. We also have Hawaii Farm to School Network.

Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee. My name is Kawika Kahiapo with the Farm to School Network. We are in strong support of this policy. We believe that Act 175, getting to 30 percent local procurement by 2030, has been actually going from six point two to five point four over the last few years.

I think this bill would help to create tools so that they can purchase from local farmers. Thank you.

Thank you. Members, we also had five other organizations in support, and about 28 other individuals all in support, who indicated they would not be joining us for the hearing. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, thank you. Questions, members? Okay, thank you. We'll move on to the next bill, House Bill 987, HD1 Vice Chair.

First, we have the State Procurement Office in support.

Good morning again. Bonnie Kahakui, Administrator, State Procurement Office. Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, we stand in strong support of this bill. Mahalo.

Thank you. We also received support from the Department of Accounting and General Services. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, thank you very much. Questions, Members? Okay, thank you. We'll move on to the next bill, House Bill 763, HD 1. Vice Chair.

First, we have Department of Education with comments.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Teri Ushijima testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The Department stands on its written testimony which provides comments on this measure. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next we have Hawaii State Teachers Association in support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair. Sarah Milianta-Laffin on behalf of HSTA. I'm really passionate about this issue. I'm a political science major who believed a lot in service to my country, so I joined Teach for America and I've been teaching for 19 years. Civics is a key part of that.

None of you, I imagine, would be here without some level of civics education. So I'll keep my comments brief, but I did write them down. Civics education matters because it helps individuals understand their rights and responsibilities as members of a democratic society.

It equips people with the knowledge needed to participate effectively in government, make informed decisions, and hold leaders accountable. A strong civic education fosters critical thinking, encourages civic engagement like voting and community service, and promotes an understanding of the rule of law, constitutional principles, and the importance of civil discourse.

Without it, democracy can weaken, as citizens may lack the awareness or skills needed to advocate for their interests and contribute to the common good. Now more than ever, we need this in this country. So please support this.

Thank you. We also received six pieces testimony in support and with comments from organizations and seven individuals in support who indicated they would not be present. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify?

Anybody on Zoom?

Okay questions Members? Moving on to the next Bill House Bill 1234 HD1 Vice Chair.

First we have Department of Education with comments.

Aloha Chair Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. Terry Ushijima representing the Department. We stand on our written testimony providing comments. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next we have the Department of Health on Zoom. Not present. Next we have the Hawaii Lifeguard Association in support.

Good morning again. Or, yeah, still morning. Chairs and Members of the Committee. I'm Kirsten Hermstead. I'm the Executive Director of the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association. The work that we do with the Association is completely focused on preventing drowning and aquatic injuries.

I did provide written testimony that requested one language change potentially to this Bill, and that would be to require that there be pre- and post-skills assessment done at the end of the program for each child. This is important data for the future of water safety education here in Hawaii.

I'm going to wing it a little bit here. I was driving in the dark on Kauai this morning and I had a thought. So I would like to provide you with some kind of big picture on this topic. My father was a surfer and a lifeguard and a firefighter.

So I grew up with this topic all around me all the time. And as a surfer, he had a lot of surfboards and he called them his quiver. He had one for every condition, whatever kind of wave was coming. He had a board for that. I loved that word when I was a kid. Quiver.

And I learned in my career going on that most problems didn't just have one solution. You needed a quiver. You needed all kinds of different methods of solving a problem. And that's how water safety is here in Hawaii. We need a quiver. This Bill is one piece of that puzzle. You all are part of the quiver.

We need to take care of water safety in Hawaii. It's the number one cause of death for our keiki in this state. It's the number one cause of death for our visitors in this state. Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders drown at a higher rate than any other ethnicity in this state. It's a real problem.

So my goal and our goal in the Association is within five to seven years. Hawaii is known for its innovative, effective, amazing water safety for all of our visitors, all of our kids, all of our native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Let's shift the narrative. Let's no longer be number two in the country with the highest drowning rate.

No more of that. Five to seven years. This pilot is part of that. So let's switch it up. Let's be excellent and be the leaders in water safety internationally. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition in support.

Aloha chair, Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Dan Warden. I submitted testimony on behalf of the Water Safety Coalition. And I just wanted to show up here personally to show my support in person, highlight a couple comments and then be available for questions if we need. I want to speak a couple.

I want to say a couple things that speak to why during school hours education is the best path toward decreasing downing the state. There's various factors that limit the effectiveness of extracurricular options. Public programs lack the resources to meet current demand. We'll hear some other testimony as well. I know that's been submitted on people that.

That try and sign up for programs and you just can't get into any here. Like there just isn't enough available programming to meet the demand. The cost of private lessons is prohibited for many families. The time and transportation and the commitment to get there is a burden on a lot of those same families.

After school and weekend programs tend to emphasize competitive swimming strokes as opposed to aquatic safety competencies which doesn't adequately and holistically address the issue of drowning. And then parents own fearfulness of the water or an overconfidence in the protective ability of just the ability to swim can influence their choice of enrolling their children.

So simply put, the best way to reach the broadest number of children is to provide a vital safety education during school hours. This Bill includes that any aquatic safety education must use that valuable time effectively. It requires education to align with health education standards and physical education standards.

So you use aquatic safety as the context for addressing health and wellness standards, similar to doing a soccer unit in school or nutrition unit in school. I do really want to commend the current efforts going on, especially the DOE with the program that they're running this spring or planning on this spring.

But to my knowledge, there's no funding to continue that program. And the data shows that a majority of students in Hawaii don't have the. They lack the basic skills to avoid or recover from a drowning situation. So the urgency in making an impact is real. We don't want to lose momentum.

And so what this build is doing is appropriating funding to provide this vital safety education for the upcoming school years. It's necessary to ensure that the current efforts being undertaken by a variety of community and state partners continues towards building an equitable and scalable solution that make a lasting impact in the state. Again, I'm available for questions afterwards.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Next we have Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku foundation on Zoom in support.

Hello, Sarah Fairchild again. I'd like to respond to part of doe's testimony that was submitted. They mentioned that they're using the Nakamakai written materials as a way to teach water safety and they are highly respected. In fact, our foundation gives grants to them every year and we feel like they are great partners in this.

But what their workbooks teach are things like don't swim without a lifeguard and observe the ocean conditions. These are great things to teach kids, but it's not teaching them physically what to do with their body should they fall into water. You just can't teach swimming from a book.

The DOE testimony also stated that some kids might have had lessons already, and why teach them? That may be true, but they may not have all 15 skills deemed necessary to prevent drowning. Further, we have other subjects where kids come in with some of the skills.

We don't just not teach them reading if they have some reading skills already. The Department is also concerned that swimming may serve other lessons. My understanding is that these swim lessons would be under an hour a few times a week for a few weeks.

Drowning is the leading cause of death for kids in Hawaii ages 1 to 15. We ranked second in the nation for rate of drowning among residents. We are surrounded by water. This literally is a vital skill. Further, I've been part of the drafting of this year's Bill.

It was our understanding when we were drafting it that the program plan for Palama this spring funded by the DOE was a one-off program with leftover funds and that there were no, there was no real plan to continue it. The word pilot was not in the contract. Now it, the DOE is calling this program a pilot.

I think that's great. But I'd suggest that then this Bill move forward and then the DOE could use the currently planned program at Palama as the pilot, which should save some time and allow for quicker reporting back to the Legislature.

Finally, I want to recognize, like the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association alluded to, that this is a very complex problem. It's not going to be solved by just this kind of program. We're really going to need the DOE to work with the various county pools and nonprofits over the long term.

Kona county pools are already teaching some DOE schools during the school day. For schools that are in walking distance to their pools, this is costing no extra money to the DOE or to the county. I think we should build on that and then supplement it with programs like this pilot using nonprofits across the state. And thank you.

Next we have Miriam Sibiu in support, please.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Miriam Sibiu. I am in strong support of this Bill. I'm here today sharing my experience as a parent trying to register my child to swimming lessons.

On registration day, I am logged into my County of Honolulu's online portal with my phone and computer ready to hit the registration button at 5 spm sharp. I even take time off work to make sure I don't miss my chance. I say chance because the spots fill up within seconds.

With the online platform online often crashing quickly after opening. I start to wonder what the gap between the offer and the demand might be. The population of kids aged 5 to 14 years in the County of Honolulu is 114,811 people based on the latest census data.

In contrast, there were approximately 486 spots for kids aged 5 to 12 years through the County of Honolulu's Learn to Swim Program for spring 2025, which represents less than 1% of the county's population for that age group. Swimming is the only sport that saves lives. Swimming is a life skill.

I urge you to consider supporting this Bill, which will not only save lives, but make water safety education accessible in an equitable way to all keikis in Hawaii. Thank you.

Thank you. Members, we also received three organizations supporting this and two other individuals all in support indicating they would not be with us today. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Oh, please. Oh, so just please identify yourself and then proceed. Thank you.

I'm Allison Schaefers. I'm a volunteer bereaved parent for the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition. My daughter, Charlotte Schaefers. Charlotte Sharkey Schaefers drowned in 2004 in a flooded detention pond. The child that she went into the detention pond to rescue did not know how to swim.

We, as a coalition formed in 2023 because the US wrote the first national water safety plan and they asked all to do a water safety plan. So I volunteered my time because I'm impassioned about drowning prevention because I have experienced that loss to help write our first Hawaii water safety plan.

And one of the things that's pretty clear in that plan, we have some big ideas, but the smaller idea is probably the most important one. Our kids here need to learn to swim.

We have statistics in there that show that less than 2% of our second graders have the skills to prevent a drowning if they would fall into the water. Also, the chance of a child learning to swim if the parent can't swim is 19%. We know that lessons are effective.

And the reason I know that is because when you look at the states, Hawaii has the second highest drowning rate for residents in the nation. A lot of people will tell me, oh, well, that's just because we're surrounded by water. But that's not true. New York, New Jersey have the best drowning weights. They also have water.

The difference is they offer in-school lessons. California is in the middle of the plan of states for drowning, significantly less than us. We are at the highest end because we don't invest in our keiki in this way. And I know that there are costs to these investments.

But let me tell you, when we're talking about drowning, drowning carries a cost too. It carries an emotional cost to our communities. It takes people away from us that can never be returned. But beyond that, there are productivity losses for drowning, their medical costs. So it is expensive to allow people to drown.

And the other thing I would say is the saddest thing about all of this is in almost every case, drowning is preventable. So the other issue is the equity issue. The reason in school lessons are the best is I think the reason that we have the highest rate of resident drowning for Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians.

It's our cost of living. We have the world's best watermen and water women. But those skills aren't getting passed down. I think it's because parents are working three jobs, they're stuck in traffic, they can't get the keiki to lessons.

On the west side of Oahu, where rest of our native alliance Pacific Islanders live, there aren't any public swimming pools. You know, we can do better. And we have in the past. We've actually funded DOE lessons in the past. They stopped programs in the late 1980s.

You know, I think it was maybe a return to other focus, but clearly that didn't work for us. Our drowning rates are now at a crisis. And I just would say that the equity issue, I think alone speaks to why we should do this in the classrooms. After school programs, even a lot of parents can't afford that.

I mean, I was even a latchkey kid in my home. So I think a lot of us can recognize that that costs money. And then parents testify about not being able to get into the Department of Parks and Recreation programs. Well, you know, you need a computer to register. The slots are gone in five minutes.

If you don't have a computer, you can't do that. So I would just ask you to consider putting our Keiki first in this. I know that the Department of Education has indicated that they have a program, but it's only going to reach 200 kids. And funding stops.

We have, and I've heard other Members kind of mention, well, why should I support this if the pilot won't be in my district? But we have Members that are working on solutions. So this is a two-year pilot. So by year two it maybe could get to anybody's district.

We have members that are working on storage container pools where they could actually put a pool on a mobile platform and drive it to a school. So it could possibly be in any one of your districts if you just give us a little bit of time to scale up. And that's why we need this two year pilot.

Thank you.

Thank you. And we did have your testimony. Sorry, I just didn't have you checked in, but thank you, Ms. Schaefers. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Chair.

Please go ahead, state your name for the record and proceed.

This is Kylie Swan, Chair. Good morning Chair, Vice Chair and Committee Members. I'm a strong supporter of this Bill because DOE is the. Sorry. Swimming safety is one of the top priorities in Department of Education settings. And thank you for letting me do testify. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom wishing to testify?

Okay, Members, question. Okay, thank you. Oh, sorry, Vice Chair.

Quick question for Department of Education. The pilot that you mentioned, testimony and several of the testifiers also kind of talked about. Sorry, is that the same program? The 200 kids. Is that the pilot you guys are referencing?

Yes, I believe it is.

Okay, so same. We're all talking about the same thing.

Okay, what's the timing for this? So it seems like it's ongoing. What's the timing for the completion and then when would you be expecting the report from the program?

So we've spent the last few months preparing to start it up, doing all the background work that has to be done with the procurement office and all of that. And so I'll let our PE specialists respond. Say your name.

Hi. George Sentale, education specialist with the DOE. Yeah, so the program is the in class sessions are expected to start late February and then over the next few months will be the in-pool sessions. Eight in-pool sessions, about 30 minutes each.

Sorry. So we're starting later this month and then running whatever weeks and then that's the close of the program. Then you're going to generate the report.

Right? That's one of the expectations at the end is to get a report back from the vendor. June 30th is the end of the contract.

And then potentially if it's positive and something you think you could pilot elsewhere, we just be like, you have to come back next session. So we just be like a year behind or to start back up and talk about this again.

Is that the timing of what it would look like to expand the pilot if you find positive results?

I think we would learn from the pilot because right now it's 10 lessons lesson and it's 30 minutes for the first in class lesson. All the lessons are about 30 minutes. The two at the end are in-classroom so they don't have to walk to the pool.

The others are actually getting into the pool and working on some of those 15 competencies that was mentioned earlier. And in order to do that, even if it's within walking distance, for a 30-minute time in the pool. We're also asking how long does it really take?

Because I was a second grade teacher and I remember taking my students to the pool but we had to take a bus and they actually got to go in the water. But there's a lot of preparation ahead of time that you have to do. Kids have to change into their swim gear.

You know, you have to get ready and then when you come back, you know, if everyone's wet, you got to change. And so it's not just 30 minutes. You know, it's a lot of instructional time. So we're, and so we're not sure if this is the best model.

If they're going to take time to walk to a pool, maybe it's less than eight sessions, but maybe it's a little bit longer. You know, we're not sure. We're, we're learning about the impact. So to do something that's of the same nature at this time would be kind of replicating what we're trying to do now.

So like your pilot, you would expect to be able to compile the results of what you're doing now, I guess later this year for possible consideration. Whatever you're going to be doing in the future for 2026.

Yes. Because we don't know what our findings will be.

That's the timing though. Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Further questions? Okay, thank you. Moving on to House Bill 88, HD 1. Vice Chair.

Okay, first up, we have the Office of the Attorney General on Zoom with comments. Oh, sorry. In person.

Good morning, Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takenouchi, Members. Anne Horiuchi, Department of the Attorney General. As stated in our testimony, any sports related travel for student athletes must comply with Title 9 as well as HRS Section 302A-461. So in our testimony, we've provided some suggested amendments to the bill that would address those issues. Thank you. I'll be available for questions.

Thank you. Next, we have the Department of Education with comments.

Aloha again, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Teri Ushijima representing the Department of Education. We stand on our written testimony providing comments. So thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Members, we also received one other testimony from an, or from Molokai High School Athletics in support and two individuals also in support, all indicating they would not be joining us. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Chair?

Yeah. Please state your name and proceed.

My name is Kaili Swan. I am in strong support of this measure because I was part of the swim team at Mary South Pilcher High School in Washington State. It'll be nice. They can expand more athletic availabilities in the Department of Education. That would be great. And thanks for listening my testimony. And please let me know if you have any question that you may have. Thank you. Thank you so much to support this bill.

Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom wishing to testify?

Members, questions? Okay. Representative Lamosao.

For the DOE. I just wanted to know what is the projected cost to run this pilot?

I'm sorry, could you repeat the question, please?

What is the projected cost to run this pilot program?

We have Bryce.

Hi. Bryce Kaneshiro, I'm the extracurricular administrator for the DOE. I'm also the OIA Athletic Executive Director. So we asked the funding of last year for both the district that there, that's Lanai, Molokai, Lahainaluna, and Hana. The grand total of their travel expect travel is $469,225.

Now, that includes federal money that Lahainaluna received last year due to their travel problems that they had and they had to send kids out to other schools before they could come back. So that was 162,000. So that's different from this current year. And this also includes current funding that they're already getting from their budgets that they have now, the 2700 and the 3772. But I'm just giving you the total funds that they have.

Thank you. Any further questions? We'll move on to House Bill 627 HD 1. Vice Chair.

First we have Department of Education in support.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, Dean Uchida with Department of Education. We stand on written testimony in support of this bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have the Hawaii State Teachers Association in support. Thank you. Next we have Kaili Swan on Zoom.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members, my name is Kaili Swan. I'm a strong supporter of this bill because school safety is top priority in a DOE setting.

Let me talk to you about the incident in The Freedom School that I attend. A student brought the gun to school and start shooting four students before killing himself in a school cafeteria back in Marissa Patrick High School in Washington State in 2014.

So this bill especially utilize like student safety if they implement like school like the Alice training in as cafeterias Alice drills so when students know what to do like there was a active shooting on campus so they can evacuate to a safest place. So please pass this measure.

Please let me know if you question me. Thank you for allowing me to testify.

Thank you. Members, we also received support from the Department of Law Enforcement and HGEA and one individual who indicated they wouldn't be here. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay. Members, questions? Okay, thank you. We'll move to the next bill. House Bill 329 HD2.

First, we have Department of Education with comments.

Aloha Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takenouchi, Members of the Committee. Keith Hayashi, superintendent testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The department standards on its written testimony which provide comments on this measure. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you. Next we have the Hawaii School Facilities Authority in support.

Good morning committee. Riki Fujitani with the School Facilities Authority. We're a startup agency. What this bill seeks to do is clarify roles and responsibilities so we can move quicker and more efficiently in accomplishing the programs and initiatives that have been assigned to us. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have the Attorney General with comments.

Morning Chair, Vice Chair, Members. Anne Horiuchi from the Attorney General's Office. First, with regard to the pre kindergarten and preschool facilities, we noted that child care and early learning programs are not on public school campuses and the DOE does not have jurisdiction or administrative authority over such programs.

So we provided suggested amendments to the bill in our testimony. Also, it's not clear from the bill if it's if SFA's responsibility for public school projects related to new or renovated facilities for pre kindergarten and preschool programs is also meant to include repair and maintenance.

So if the intent is to have SFA responsible for repair and maintenance, we've provided suggested amendments. If the intent is to not have SFA responsible for repair and maintenance, we provided suggested language for that as well.

Then as to workforce housing, to clarify that the workforce housing is for educators and education workers in public schools, we provided some suggested language in our testimony. And then finally, with regard to workforce housing, the bill states that SFA shall be responsible for all public school projects related to workforce housing.

It's not clear whether or not such housing is must be on public school property to qualify as public school projects. So we recommend clarifying that the SFA can build workforce housing outside of public school grounds if that's the legislature's intent. Thank you. I'll be available for questions.

Thank you. Members, we also have testimony support from two organizations and one other individual who indicated they would not be joining us. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay. Members, questions? Okay, thank you. We'll note your comments. AG's comments. Okay, we'll move on to the next bill. House Bill 636 HD1.

First, we have Department of Education with comments.

Dean Uchida, Department of Education. We stand on our written comments on this measure. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have the Attorney General with comments.

Morning Chair, Vice Chair, Members. In our testimony, we recommend that the bill be clarified to specify that the board that's referenced in subsection C and D of the proposed new section refers to the Board of Education and not to clarify that it's not possibly referring to the School Facilities Authority Board. So we provided amendments. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Hawaii School Facilities Authority in support.

Riki Fujitani with the School Facilities Authority. Thank you again for hearing this bill. There are two seismic changes going on in Hawaii. You know, the first is the reduction in students. We have fewer students, and it's headed to less than it was in the 1960s.

And secondly, as we all know, school choice. And these two factors will result in massive changes in the way we have to deal with schools, how we fund it. So the importance of this initiative is to provide a database that will inform you on how to make these hard choices.

More importantly, the data has to be aligned to the decision makers, which are yourselves. So it has to be aligned where each district, whether house or senate, can get that information readily to make these key decisions. And that's what this initiative is about. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Hawaii State Teachers Association in support.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair. Sarah Milianta-Laffin and on behalf of HSTA. We're excited by this bill. It's another one of those things, as a teacher, I was kind of surprised didn't exist already.

So when I got to my classroom in 2017 at Alima Intermediate, I noticed I have two sinks and I teach STEM, so we get really messy hands on learning. And one of the sinks was broken, and it just had never worked.

And so I tried to put in a work order, and I was told, well, you can't do a work order on this sink because you do have one working sink in the classroom. Well, when I have 35 kids per class, we need two sinks. So the idea is my school was the original Campbell High School.

So it was built in the 50s or 60s. Regularly, about 5-6 times a year, the power goes out and we just are stuck in the dark. The internet goes out a lot.

We know schools like mine are in need of these capital improvement things, but for you to make these informed decisions, you have to know where it's at. You don't know about my sinks until I tell you about my sinks. And we can't have every teacher at the capitol telling our stories. We should have more.

But it's really important that we think about the projects that we're evaluating and making sure those at school, schools like mine that are high need schools, get help first. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Members. We also had Department of Budget and Finance with Cummins and EDP Corporation in support, as well as one individual in support, all indicating they would not be joining us. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay. Members, questions? Okay, thank. Oh, Vice Chair.

For Department of Education. So your testimony indicates that this would be a duplicated duplication of something that you already have?

Yeah, we are responsible for the repair maintenance of the existing schools. And so we have a way of figuring out what's wrong. We have a system where the schools ask for help in repairing something that might be broken.

Does that have the capability to do some of the.

The other aspects I think that SFA is doing, you know, when they talk about being able to plan or give us information about projection, future projects, or is there any way that that platform can be expanded to include some of this other work, or how hard would that be for you guys to do?

I need to get back to you on that. I got to go find out what exactly the capabilities of the existing system is right now.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Further questions, Members? Okay, thank you very much. Okay, we'll move on to the final bill on this agenda. House Bill 1437 HD1. Vice Chair.

First up, we have Department of Taxation with comments. Thank you. Stands on comments. And we also have Tax Foundation of Hawaii on Zoom.

Yes. Good morning, Chair, members of the committee. This is Jade McMillen on behalf of Tom Yamachika.

Oh, we can't hear you.

This is Jade McMillen on behalf of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

Oh, yeah. Oh, there we go. Okay, I think you're good.

Thank you. Pardon me. Yes, Jade McMillen on behalf of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii. They submitted some comments on the measurement noting that a similar. Similar bill was passed in 2022 that was vetoed by Governor Ige.

And also we question why nonprofit schools would be given this treatment, unlike other nonprofit organizations. Thank you.

Thank you. Members, we also received testimony and support from seven other organizations and three individuals indicating they would not be present. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay. Members, questions? Okay, thank you very much, members. We're going to recess for decision making. We're in recess.

Okay, we're going to reconvene the Committee on Finance for our first agenda. First up, House Bill 133 HD2. Recommendation is to pass as is. Any discussion? Vice Chair for the vote.

Members, voting on HB 133 HD2. Recommendations to pass as is. Chair and Vice Chair vote I.

[roll call]

Chair, recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you very much. Moving on to House Bill 904 HD1 as is. Discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 904 HD1. Recommendation is to pass unamended. Noting the excused absences of Representatives Alcos and Ward, who will be noted as excused for the rest of the agenda unless otherwise noted. Are there any reservations? Any no's? Chair, recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to House Bill 1065 HD1 as is. Discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 1065 HD1. Recommendation is pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Chair recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to House Bill 429 HD1 as is. Discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 429 HD1. Recommendation is to pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to House Bill 754 HD1. We're going to be amending it by blanking out the appropriation, blanking out the FD, and technical non substantive amendments. Any discussion? Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB 754 HD1. Recommendation is to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to House Bill 624 HD1 as is. Discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 624 HD1. Recommendation is to pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay. Moving on to House Bill 637 HD1 as is. Discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 637 HD1. Recommendation is to pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, moving on. House Bill 961 HD1 as is. Discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 961 HD1. Recommendation is pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay. This is very important for the Vice Chair. Okay. Moving on to the next bill. Okay, very on. Moving on to the next bill, House Bill 962 HD1 as is. Discussion? Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB 962 HD1. Recommendation is to pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to the next bill, House Bill 683 HD1. We're going to be amending it by blanking out the FTEs and tech. Any discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 683 HD1. Recommendation is to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, moving on to the next bill. House Bill 424 HD1. Members, we're going to. This is a bill that you know, I think is. We may deal with some of this. Well this one, I think we're going to move it forward to just have a vehicle to address the percentages and maybe have a further discussion on that.

But you know there's money that the department is requesting for possible shortfalls that we may deal with in the budget and then dealing with the Alice population and things like that. We deal with that in budget also so. But but for now we're going to be blanking out the percentage and moving it out with some technical amendments.

HD2. Any discussion? Okay, Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB 424 HD1. Recommendations to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any no's? Chair, recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you very much. Moving on to the next bill, House Bill 1293 HD1. Okay. Members, we're going to be pretty much moving the bill back to the original form before the HD1, which is taking into account the SPO's concerns and that we do have prior concurrence from the previous committee. So HD2. Any discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 1293 HD1. Recommendation is to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, moving on to House Bill 987 HD1 as is. Discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 987 HD1. Recommendation is pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you very much. Moving on to House Bill 763 HD3. We're going to be moving this out as is and in the committee report we're going to put the LRB concerns of.

There may be a title concern with this bill. It may be a little too narrow so we'll just put that in a committee report but we're going to be passing it out and seeing if they're going to subject matter will amend it going forward. Okay, any discussion? Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB 763 HD1. Recommendation is to pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, moving on to House Bill 1234 HD1 as is. Discussion? Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 1234 HD1. Recommendation is to pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to House Bill 88 HD1. Recommendation is pass it out as is. And then in the committee report, we'll be noting the amendments from the AG that they requested and have subject matter deal with that. But there's a lot of moving parts to that. Any discussion? Okay, Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 88, HD1. Recommendations to pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you very much. Moving on to House Bill 627 as is. Discussion? Okay, Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 627 HD1. Recommendation is to pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, thank you very much. Moving on to House Bill 329 HD2. We're going to be. Recommendation is to pass it out as is. I do note the DOA's concerns, but in the committee report, we're going to be putting the AG's concerns in the committee report. Any discussion? Okay.

Voting on HB 329 HD2. Recommendation is to pass unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, moving on to the second to the last bill, House Bill 636 HD1. We're going to be taking the AG's suggested language, which is technically technical. So passing it out as an HD2. Any discussion? And some other technical amendments. Okay, Vice Chair.

Voting on HB 636 HD1. Recommendations to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendation is adopted.

Okay, moving on to House Bill 1437 HD1. We're going to be moving this out as an HD2, putting in the suggested DOE tax amendments and some technical other technical amendments. Any discussion? Okay, Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB 1437 HD1. Recommendations to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendations adopted.

Okay. Thank you, members. Okay, we're going to recess and then move into our second. I'm sorry, we're going to. We're going to adjourn and then recess for about, well, let's say half an hour or sooner, but let's say half an hour. Okay, we're in recess. Thank you.

Okay, we're going to convene the Committee on Finance for our second agenda. A little late. Okay, we're going to start off with House Bill 750 HD2, Vice Chair.

Okay, first up, we have the Department of Health in support.

Hello. Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the Finance Committee, Lane Otsu speaking on behalf of Department of Health. And we stand on our written testimony in support of this measure. Available for questions.

Thank you. Next, we have Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission in support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, Leah Laramee with the Climate Change Mitigation Adaptation Commission. We stand on our testimony and support. Mahalo.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Next, we have Hawaii Food Industry Association on Zoom. Oh, sorry. In person.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, I'm Alexis Chapman testifying on behalf of HFIA. We stand on our testimony with comments, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Members, we also have six other organizations in support, and about 10 other individuals all in support, who indicated they were not going to join us. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay. Members, any questions? Okay, we're going to move on to the next bill. House Bill 1070, sorry 977 HD1. Vice Chair.

Okay, first up we have DCCA, Division of Consumer Advocacy in support.

Morning, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee. We stand on our written testimony in support. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority in support.

Good afternoon. Gwen Yamamoto Lau, Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority. We stand on a written testimony in support.

We have Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption Commission in support.

Aloha. Leah Laramee. Stand on our testimony in support. Mahalo.

Thank you. We also have the Public Utilities Commission in support.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, I'm Ashley Norman with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. We stand on a written testimony. Available for comment or questions. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next we have Holu Hou Energy LLC on Zoom in support.

Aloha. My name is Ted Peck. I do stand on our written testimony but I do want to emphasize it is a loan program that money comes back to the state. This is the final piece you know of.

There's a machine that's been built over the last 10 years that's highly successful and lauded internationally at being effective at lowering the cost of living for low to medium income residents and driving additional investment for in the into the state for those residents. And I'll stay on and available for questions.

Thank you. We have six other organizations and six individuals all in support who are not here today. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom?

Okay, members, any questions? Thank you very much. Moving on to House Bill 1295 HD1. Vice Chair.

First, we have Public Utilities Commission in support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee. Ashley Norman with the Public Utilities Commission. We stand our written comments and available for questions and answers. Mahalo.

Okay, thank you. We also have Budget and Finance with comments and one individual in support. Is anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay. Questions, members? Moving on to the next bill. House Bill 344 HD1.

First, we have Climate Change Mitigation and Adaption Commission in support.

Aloha. We'll stand on our testimony in support.

Thank you. We have the Department of Transportation in support on Zoom. Not present. We have the Hawaii State Energy Office in support.

Chair. Vice Chair. Mark Glick for the Energy Office. Members of the committee, we support House Bill 344, stand on our testimony in support, and happy to answer any questions you might have.

We have the Disability and Communication Access Board on Zoom in support. The Ulupono Initiative. Okay, sorry, I just saw them. They weren't checked in on the bill, but okay. In support. Okay. Members, we also have additional organizations and three individuals all in support. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay. Members, any questions? You have a question, Representative Lee Loy.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. For the Energy Office. I just. In support of this bill and I'm just being very thoughtful of how it's crafted. Oftentimes, we craft bills for current standards, which is charging stations. But there's a lot of innovative technology out there where we have induction charging.

Words on this bill allow for more innovative solutions that may arise in the future. Or is that something that we need to consider and I just know that the technology exists.

Yeah. Chair, Vice Chair, Representative, it's a really good point. We point out in our testimony that even level ones ought to be considered at certain points and other technology, other appropriate technology. We're supposed to be doing studies and working together with DOT support and you know, with DAG support.

So it would behoove this bill to make it as flexible as possible so that we can arrive at the most efficient solutions.

And fall forward as more innovative solutions come about. Great, thanks. Thank you, Chair.

Okay, thank you. Further questions, members? Okay, moving on to the next bill. House Bill 242 HD1.

First, we have the Department of Health on Zoom in support.

Good Afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, and members of the committee. I'm Noa Klein with the Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch in the Department of Health's Environmental Health Administration. The Department stands on its written testimony in support of this measure, and I'm here to answer any questions you have. Thank you.

Thank you. We have the Hawaii State Energy Office in support.

Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, Mark Glick for the Energy Office. We do stand on our testimony in support of this measure. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Redwood Materials on Zoom in support.

Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, thank you very much. Daniel Zotos with Redwood Materials. We've submitted written testimony, but I just wanted to quickly mention where highly supportive of this legislation. We're also very pleased.

We testified in the previous committee, and there was important language added to this proposal that would actually include specialized battery recyclers into the working group. So we're thrilled about that. We're looking forward to working with everyone on this policy, and we thank you for your time.

Thank you. Members, we have eight additional written comments in support and with comments, and one individual also with comments who did not sign up to testify. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, questions members? Moving on to the next bill, House Bill 1307 HD2.

First, we have the Department of Hawaiian Homelands in support.

Aloha 'auinala. Oriana Leao, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee. The Department stands in strong support of this measure, which was approved by the Hawaiian Homes Commission. And I'm available for questions. Mahalo

Thank you. Now we have Ulupono Initiative in support. Sorry.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, Mariah Yoshizu, on behalf of Ulupono Initiative, will stand on our testimony in support of this measure. Thank you so much.

Thank you. We have Kim in opposition on Zoom. And we also have Nawahine Kahoopii in opposition on Zoom. Okay, members we also have four other organizations in support and about five other individuals in opposition. And eight other individuals in support. Is there anyone else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, questions, members? Okay, Representative Lee Loy.

I'm ready to testify on Zoom.

Okay go ahead.

I'm opposition to the 20 million dollars for this project. You should know that there was no beneficiary consultation, which is a condition of the Department of the Interior. There's a conflict of interest with this project. The East Hawaii Commissioner for Hawaiian Homes, Michael Kaleikini, is also the director of Puna Geothermal.

Oh, please go ahead. Proceed.

Some of this project is designated for a residential area in Kawaihae. That is environmental racism. If you're going to put a project like this in a residential area. There's 600 homesteaders in Kawaihae. There's also a small retail area of Kawaihae, and there are. There's housing along the oceanfront there. In my opinion, this is also corporate welfare.

There's 20 million taxpayer dollars for exploration when Ormat is a 3.8 billion dollar foreign corporation. If they want to do this, they should be spending their own tax dollars, not ours. My other issue with this is that there's everything, I'm a homesteader. I'm a beneficiary in Hawaiian homelands. Everything goes on Hawaiian homelands except Hawaiians.

We have cell towers, shopping malls, car lots, churches, airports, rubbish dumps, wastewater treatment plants, public schools, clinics, wind farms, solar farms, roads to access, telescopes, military bases, parks, easements, wealthy ranchers that function as developers but are really our developers but pass themselves off as ranchers.

We have thousands of our homelands leased to ranchers when our own people are waiting on the wait list, and they die on the wait list. And now you're going to give us the geothermal project and yet another bait for money to get Hawaiians on Hawaiian homes. How long has this been going on? 29 hundred.

29,000 homesteaders are still waiting for a place on Hawaiian homes. And now we're going to use this project as another avenue to try to place Hawaiians when the waitlist should have been cleared long ago. This is greenwashing, and it's at the expense of our homesteaders and our Kanaka families.

What happens to the homesteaders who spent their lives waiting for a lease and getting on Hawaiian homelands when their place becomes an environmental disaster and they have to move like what you have going on in Puna now, if you pay attention to what's happening in Puna, you would know better than to do this to Hawaiians who are living on Hawaiian homelands.

Puna Geothermal also has several lawsuits in various stages that you should be aware of, and some of them are headed to the Supreme Court. I find this 20 million dollar investment to be fiduciary, irresponsible. When you have that same organization that has several lawsuits pending, one of them headed to the Supreme Court.

And finally, I want to say, if we're talking about our endangered species, Puna Geothermal has been known to be the number one killer of the Hawaiian hawk. Again, I want to really emphasize what a bad idea this is. Even if you don't, Kawaihae is only one site. We have also Humu'ula.

That area was designated for the last 30 years for placement for ranch people who are waiting for a ranch lease. If that project goes up at Humu'ula on those, on those lands on Mauna Kea, those are legacy lands. All of the people who have been waiting for decades for a ranch lease will not get one.

If you're going to do it in South Point. The homesteaders in South Point have been waiting for 30 years for water. They couldn't get water, but now you're going to dwell, drill for water for a geothermal project when the homesteaders themselves weren't given the option to have a well drilled for them for water.

I'm absolutely opposed to this. Every homesteader I talked to, first of all, didn't know about this because there's no beneficiary consultation. It passed through Hawaiian, the Hawaiian Affairs Committee, knowing that there was no beneficiary consultation. And now you're going to bring it here.

If you finance this, I just want you to know that it's done without the DOE, the DOI designation. Homesteaders don't know about it, and you're going to have a big fight on your hands. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Anyone else wishing to testify? Okay. Representative Lee Loy.

Thank you, Chair for the Department. And I understand that it went to the commission, but clearly there's a disconnect between the beneficiary consultation piece and the DHHL Commission approval of this. Was there beneficiary consultation for this matter?

The Department has participated in a few, a number of listening sessions. However, the Department hasn't hosted beneficiary consultation sessions. We know that it will continue to be necessary as we go through this process, and we remain open to opportunities available for us to connect with the communities and stakeholders.

Okay, and then the other piece, which is the Department of Interior's approval, where is the Department on connecting with DOI?

At this time? DHHL has not consulted with the Department of Interior because, as you may be well aware, the Hawaiian Homes Commission has sole authority concerning land use and zoning for all lands under the jurisdiction of Hawaiian Homelands.

That's one interpretation, I think, and I think the beneficiaries have a very different interpretation of that. And these monies. You know what? It's okay. It's okay. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for the questions. Members. Moving on to the hospital, 1017 HD1.