House Standing Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs

Welcome, everyone, to the House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian affairs for our 2pm hearing on Friday, February 212025. Here we are in Conference Room 325. Thank you to everyone who's here today for providing testimony. I'd like to ask if you are providing testimony that if you could keep it to two minutes.

At that point, I'll ask you to summarize. If you're testifying via Zoom, please keep yourself muted and your video off until you testify. When you turn everything on, and then turn it off again. When your testimony is complete, use the Zoom chat function to chat with our excellent technical staff here.

They could help you out as best they can, but please don't send me any messages because they don't make it all the way to me. If you're disconnected, please don't panic. Just rejoin as soon as you can, and we'll do our best to fit you in to provide your testimony.

If the power goes off here in the building and the network fails, we will reschedule and post appropriate notice so you'll know when we're meeting. And please, if you're testifying on Zoom, do not use any trademarked or copyrighted images. That kicks us off of YouTube and.

And that's a problem because we really want to be visible to the public so that everyone can watch what we're doing. Please conduct yourself with aloha. No profanity or uncivil behavior. It's okay to disagree, but let's not be disagreeable. We're all here to try to do the best thing for the State of Hawaii.

Let's go ahead and get started. First up is House Bill 194 relating to Maritime Day. This measure designates May 22 of each year as Maritime Day. First up, we have testimony, written testimony and support from Hawaii State AFL Cio. Written testimony and support from Hawaii Nurses Association. Testimony from Michael Golojuch, Pride at Work Hawaii Present.

Testimony from University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, Christian Fern, not present. Testimony from Irish Barber. These are all in support. And finally, testimony from Katherine Graveson. In support. Mr. Golojuch, please proceed.

Good afternoon. Thank you. For Pride at Work Hawaii, Michael Golojuch Jr., President. He him pronouns. We stand in strong support of this Bill, and we encourage you to pass it.

Thank you very much, Michael. Is there anyone else here wishing to testify in House Bill 194? If not, any questions? Nope. We'll move on. Thanks very much to the testifiers. Next Bill is House Bill 458, relating to Brother Joseph Dutton Day. This designates April 27th of every year as Brother Joseph Dutton Day.

First up, we have Keith Regan, Department of Accounting and General Services. But you're not really Keith. But why don't you tell us who you are?

I am not. Thank you, chair, vice chair. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on House Bill 458 relating to Brother Joseph Dutton. On behalf of Comptroller Regan of the Department of Accounting and General Services. I am Dr. Adam Jansen, and it is my honor to serve as your state archivist and administrator of the public archives.

We stand in strong support of this bill. As keepers of public memory, we think this is an excellent example to revisit Hawaii's history and learn from it and hold up Brother Joseph Dutton as a role model of somebody who gave of himself, risked his own health to bring humanity to these poor individuals who were exiled onto Kalaupapa.

We have the fortune of having Brother Joseph Dutton's files in the archives, so it's not just this nebulous thing. We have his diaries. We have his photos. We have tangible history that we look forward to digitizing and making accessible on the first Brother Joseph Dutton Day so that schools everywhere can use this for education and enrichment.

So thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm here if you have any questions.

Thank you very much. Dr. Jansen. You got the coolest job.

I agree.

Next. Testimony and support from Charles Saint sure. Next. Testimony and support from Patrick Boland. Mr. Boland, welcome. Please proceed.

Chair Tarnas and Vice Chair Poepoe, thanks for the opportunity to testify. I represent the Joseph Dutton Guild, and of course, we're in strong support of the bill. The merits of the bill are expressed very well in section one, in the committee report from the previous committee and in the testimony you're receiving today. So you have my written testimony,

I won't bother to read it. In summary, Dutton spent the last 44 years of his life in service to the community of Kalaupapa Settlement and those unfortunates who had been banished there. And this extraordinary life of service and dedication merits the recognition that is provided in this bill.

Of course, we'd prefer that the effective date be upon approval, but we won't quibble about that. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm fairly well acquainted with Mr. Dutton's life. So, have any questions, I'm here. Thank you.

Thank you. And thank you for your advocacy. Next, we have testimony and support from Brenda Rose Duarte. Welcome. Please come up to the podium. Proceed.

Thank you very much. I'm just here because I have a lot of relatives that live there. So I'm a descendant, so I kind of represent the families. That's all I really wanted to do. You have my testimony.

Thank you for your testimony and support of this measure. Appreciate you being here today. And finally, we have testimony, written testimony and support from Dara Yatsushiro. Is there anyone else wishing to testify in House Bill 458? If not, any questions? Nope. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for being here today. I appreciate it.

Just so you know, we're going to go through all the bills in the agenda and then have decision making at the end. You're welcome to stay, but you don't need to. I will recommend that we move this bill out, just so you know. Okay. Next measure is House Bill 957 relating to Lao Lao Day.

This measure designates the first Friday in May of each year as Laulau Day in the state. Up first we have Office of Hawaiian Affairs, in support. Next we have written testimony, support from the Hawaii Farm Bureau and from 30 individuals. Laulau is very popular. Laulau Day is as well.

Is there anyone here wishing to testify on House Bill 957? If not, no one asked questions. So we'll move on. Thank you. Next measure, House Bill 345 relating to the state shrimp. It establishes the Opiola as the state shrimp to protect ankylene pool ecosystems throughout Hawaii.

We have testimony from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Aloha Chair Tarnas Vice Chair Poepoe. Charlie Taylor, on behalf of Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Aquatic Resources, we stand in strong support of this bill which proposes to establish the Opioola as the state shrimp.

So, as you probably know, Hawaii is home to the vast majority of ankiline ecosystems in the entire world. And we feel that this measure will promote the protection of these ecosystems and raise awareness about these unique animals that live in them.

And Opiola is also a culturally significant animal for Native Hawaiians, and it plays a critical role in maintaining the eco- the health of these ecosystems, which are very fragile. So mahalo for the opportunity to testify and I'll be available for any questions.

Thank you very much. Next we have testimony, support from Kuaʻāina Ulu ʻAuamo. Welcome.

Hi. Aloha Vice chair and chair and vice chair, sorry. I'm Olan Le i momi Fisher, advocate with Kua Ulua or KUA. And we stand in strong support as well.

We helped to get this measure introduced at the request of some of our community members from Hawaii island that helped to actually protect some of these, these pools and these- these Shrimp. And this is- this is a second attempt they tried in 2019 and it didn't move. So we'd really appreciate if you had passed this measure.

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much for your advocacy. Next, we have written testimony, in support from the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, from Hawaii Ocean Legislative Task Force and from several individuals. One individual said that they were planning to be on Zoom. Mary Ann Pahukoa, not present. Is there anyone else wishing to testify in House Bill 345? If not questions,

members? Quick question for DLNR. I always wanted to ask this question. Now we've got the Opiola here. The Helicaridina rubra is it also, I know there's ankylene pools around the Red Sea, you know, in that area, but there's very few places that have ankylene pools.

Do they also have a similar species over there of shrimp?

In the Red Sea in particular?

So I'm not really sure. And there are two- generally two different types of ankylene systems. We have pools and we have caves. Yes, Right. So in terms of. But we in Hawaii mainly have these pools. Right. So they have. They're sure they're exposed to sunlight. Exposed to sunlight, exactly. Photosynthetic organisms.

So I'm not sure about the Red Sea ones. Yeah, sorry. I wish I knew more.

I was just really curious because it is a very unique ecosystem. And I was just reading and I had heard that there is- there are some ankylene pools in, I think it's in Saudi Arabia, around the Gulf of Aqaba and up in that area. But it was just a curiosity. Okay, thank you very much.

That's okay.

-help you with that.

Sorry I couldn't--

That's okay. Thank you very much. Any other questions on House Bill 345? If not, thank you very much to the testifiers. Let's move on.

And just so people know, the reason that you know the effective date is flawed, a defective effective date is that the chair wants to have the Senate review it. If they like it, they can put a clean date on it. And then the House, if we like it, we can just agree to it.

So that's just the process. So don't worry, don't panic. It's okay. We aren't going to wait until 3000 to implement the law. Okay, let's move on to the next measure, House Bill 901 on this measure. This is relating to public charter schools.

This measure authorizes public charter schools to appeal directly to the Board of Education on matters regarding the school's operations, governance or funding with certain Exceptions. First up, we have the Attorney General on Zoom. In person, oh, even better. Thank you for being here.

Good afternoon. Chair Tarnas, Vice Chair Poepoe, Members. Ann Horiuchi, Department of the Attorney General.

In our testimony, one technical comment was because the amendment would be a direct appeal that does not require an exhaustion of remedies, we recommend removing the word administrative from page 2, line 6 to clarify that the exhaustion of administrative remedies before the Commission is not required for appeals brought pursuant to new section 302D-15B.

Also, we thought that as it was written in the Bill, it didn't quite clearly define the events that would be directly appealable to the Board of Education. So to effectuate the intent, we provided some suggested amendments on page two of our testimony.

We think the amendments will clarify charter schools' expanded rights to appeal to the Board of Education, as well as further clarify the Board of Education's expanded subject matter jurisdiction to entertain those charter school appeals. Thank you. I'll be available for questions.

Thank you very much, Ms. Hariuchi. Next, we have testimony from the Hawaii State Board of Education with comments. And then we have testimony from the Hawaii State Public Charter School Commission. Welcome, please proceed.

Aloha, Chair Tarnas, Vice Chair Poepoe and Committee Members. The Commiss- I'm PJ Foehr, Deputy Director on behalf of Dr. Ed Noh, Executive Director of the Charter Commission. We stand on our submitted testimony with comments regarding HB 901 HD1, and we're happy to answer any questions regarding this measure.

Do you want to highlight your testimony with anything for those who haven't had a chance to read it?

So the comments. There are existing statutes within 302D, 302D5, 302D6 and 302D17 all point towards opportunities for intervention. And as long as none of the amendments conflict with those, we're happy to work with whoever we need to work with to help this move forward.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And finally, written testimony and support from the Hawaii Public Charter Schools Network. Is there anyone else wishing to testify in House Bill 901? If not, questions, Members? Representative Shimizu.

Thank you, Chair. There's no one here from Board of Education.

That's correct.

I guess the question would be directed to the Commission then. The question is, I wasn't clear and I appreciate your help on this, who has the final say on, I guess, an appeal that the charter schools bring up currently as it stands and as it will be with the new Bill?

Any appeal that's brought to the Board of Education, their decision is the final decision.

Okay.

As it stands.

Right. Can I ask another question? Thank you, Chair. And again, I wanted to ask this to the Board of Education, but I'm hoping that maybe you understand and will be able to answer. Of course, not for them, but to comment on it. The Board of Education's testimony, as I read it, seems to defer their authority to the State Public Charter Commission.

I, I don't think they. Well, I didn't. I don't think. The Commission did not read it from that standpoint. The amendments or the additions to this new Bill may. Pause, back up. The Commission makes their decisions based on 302, statute and whatnot. If there is an appeal, then it goes to the Board of Education.

Once that decision is done, that's a final. The Commission then follows through and enacts whatever the Board of Education has directed. So I don't believe they're saying they're deferring it to us.

I think reading the Bill, the proposed Bill, it's beyond perhaps renewals, applications and revocation notices, I believe, which is 302D5 302D6 and 302D17 outline those, those parts where the Commission has the authority.

Okay, thank you.

I think I answered that.

Thank you. Thank you. Was, was there anyone from the charter school network to ask questions to?

No.

Okay. Chair, can I ask another question?

Sure.

Okay, I'll ask you Commission, since you're there and appreciate your help again.

I guess when I read the Hawaii Public Charter School Network testimony, they were expressing a lot of concerns regarding the relationship with you, the Commission, and I guess that was a little concerning. And, you know, would you be able to comment on some of the differences that maybe have arisen that this Bill is requiring?

If I might, Representative, since that's very good information for you to get, I'd like to focus the discussion on the Bill itself rather than go into a wide, broad ranging discussion.

And I would think it would be a good idea for you to meet with the Deputy Director or others to have that discussion about the, the various issues that might be of concern. But if you could focus your question on the Bill, that'd be great.

Point taken. Chair, thank you. I defer. Thank you, Chair.

Okay, thank you very much. Any other questions, Members?

Can I ask?

Certainly Representative Belatti.

Because you're the only one here. And I think it's actually very disappointing that the charter school network isn't here. So I think that should be noted.

Speaking to the Bill, can you give an example in recent experience with the Commission where there might have been a decision by the board affecting any school's operation, governance, or funding that could have been taken up. An appeal under this new Bill.

Any decision by the Board of Education?

No, by the Commission. Right, the authorizer...

By the authorizer.

...which is the Commission. That affects the school's operation, governance, or funding.

Not from the perspective of the Commission. I don't want to speak for the Charter Network. They certainly have their points of view.

From the standpoint of recent decision, school has been selected for non-renewal and I believe they've gone through the process and we've given them the opportunities and their appeal would be forthcoming if they chose to do that. So schools still have the option to do that. I don't know if that's exactly answering the question.

I can't recall any recent decisions where we would, the Commission would, Commissioners made a decision that would impede schools. But again, I'm speaking from the Commission standpoint, I'm not speaking from the school standpoint, so I don't want to put words in their mouth.

Okay. I think. Would you say that the Commission's only duties currently are the renewal process and the granting of a charter? So it's only though it's the authorizer process. Correct?

It's the authorizing process, but the monitoring that goes along with it. So once a contract is offered and signed and then the the Commission needs to monitor the school's progress towards meeting the contract goals and then make a decision on whether there is renewal or non-renewal.

If something egregious should happen in between that time, then there would be a process for revocation of a contract. If something illegal were to take place, etc. Then a contract could be revoked.

Okay, so maybe for the education of this Committee, could you explain the process of monitoring where the Commission may be then rendering decisions that could impact the school's operation, governance, or funding that could create an appeals process.

Currently the process we have in place is over the course of a contract which right now they're five year terms. Our frameworks team goes and does site visits and does desk reviews of the academic framework, the financial framework, and the organizational framework. So we check to see that they're meeting the requirements outlined in 302D.

Also we look at quarterly financial reports that schools need to submit and our office reviews them as well. Plus each school is required to turn in an annual audit. The frameworks team conducts site visits twice a year, walking through the school looking for academic performance, progress, et cetera.

That's a very rough overview of a process that takes a lot more time and members of the staff. We're constantly engaged with schools.

Okay. So that's like a five year process. And then when your teams communicate to the Commission and a decision is made, what does that process look like?

Currently, at the end of a contract, within the renewal process as it's outlined in statute, it bumps up to, I believe, November of the renewal year and a report is issued to a school. There are statutory timelines, not 100% sure of that state when a school then needs to respond and complete their application for renewal.

And then the Commission then meets, reviews all the material and data. But in the meantime, during the five years, commissioners are updated regularly on school performance. Specifically also, there's an annual report that is submitted to the Board of Education and then and also to the Legislature.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Certainly. Representative Perruso.

Aloha. Thank you so much for being here and also thank you for your work. I feel like you, the Commission in particular has been very useful in dealing with a charter school in my district that has struggled mightily for many, many years and was a source of instability for young people and families in my community.

And I'm deeply appreciative of your willingness to work with them, but also to hold them accountable and to hold the underlying foundation accountable. That's really important to me.

And I'm curious about the extent to which this measure would undercut your authority and/or place more burden, a burden that might not easily be borne by the Board of Education.

Because the Board of Education, in my view, they're not well equipped to do the kind of work, the depth of the work that you folks on the Commission do. They have their own responsibilities to deal with the entire Department.

And I worry that asking them to take on the very complicated, knotty issues that you folks on the Commission are taking on would be overwhelming for them. And I see them potentially drowning in that kind of work. So I wonder what your view is.

Well, I would defer that answer to the Board of Education. I think, respectfully, I don't want to put words again in their mouth. I know from our standpoint and the work that Dr. Ngo has really helped us solidify in his role now as the Executive Director...

...we've worked very hard to establish strong relationships with the Board of Education, with the Department of Education, so that we can address any complications or issues that come up during the life of a contract.

We're happy to work with whomever and the network as well. We've reached out significantly and strengthened that relationship, we think, and we continue to work at it if we have more areas to grow. So we will work with whoever we need to work with to help the education landscape here in Hawaii improve and grow and get better.

Thank you so much. Thank you Chair.

Certainly. Any other questions, members? If not, thank you very much. Let's move on to the next measure. House Bill 1066, House Draft 1 relating to the Early Learning Board. Thank you.

This measure adds the Head Start State Collaboration Office Director as an ex officio non voting member of the Early Learning Board and requires the board to invite the President of the Head Start Association of Hawaii or the President's designee to serve as an ex officio non voting member of the board.

First up, we have the Early Learning Board testifying. Elaine Yamashita. Please proceed.

Aloha from Maui.

Aloha.

I'm the- My name is Elaine Yamashita and I'm the Early Learning Board Chair. We submitted testimony in support and we stand on our testimony.

Do you want to highlight, do you want to give us any highlights from your testimony? Ms. Yama- Yamashita?

We are work- We are working to bring our board into compliance with the Head Start Act and the constitution of that. So it's. We reformulated last year and we're realizing we need to make a few more adjustments to comply with the Head Start Act.

Thank you. That's very helpful information. Appreciate it very much, Ms. Yamashita. Next we have testimony in support from the Executive Office on Early Learning. Welcome. Please proceed.

Hi Chair Tarnas, Vice Chair Poepoe 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 in strong support of HB 1066 and I thank the committee for hearing this bill.

Last year it was brought to EOELs attention that the Early Learning Board was previously designated to serve as the Hawaii State Advisory Council for the purposes of the Head Start Act and as a result the Early Learning Board needs to comply with certain requirements of the Federal Head Start Act.

In 2023, Act 170 restructured the composition of the Early Learning Board and this bill makes changes needed to realign the new composition with the Head Start Act.

The language of the bill as introduced adds the State Director of Head Start Collaboration as an ex officio member and invites the President of the Head Start Association of Hawaii or the President's designee to serve as an ex official member. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your testimony. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on House Bill 1066? If not questions, members? See none. We'll move on. Thanks very much to the testifiers. Next measure, House Bill 1069 relating to education.

This measure adds two voting members that represent the Department of Education and Board of Education to the School Facilities Authority Board. First up, we have Superintendent Hayashi. Welcome. We're honored to have you here.

Aloha, Chair Tarnas, Vice Chair Poipoi, members of the committee, Keith Hayashi, Superintendent, testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. We stand on a written testimony in support of this measure. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Could you highlight why this bill is important to you?

It is. We look most definitely to work together with the School Facilities Authority. And having both the Board of Education Chair and the Department and the Superintendent for the Department of Education continues to help solidify that positive relationship.

Okay, thank you very much. Next, we have written support from the Hawaii State Board of Education. And next we have testimony with comments from the Hawaii School Facilities Authority. Welcome, sir. Please proceed.

Good afternoon. Ricky Fujitani with the School Facilities Authority. We support this governance change. It's quite consistent with other agencies that are administrative attached to have them on the board. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anyone else wishing to testify in House Bill 1069? If not, questions, members. Representative Shimizu.

Thank you chair. Can I ask a question to Mr. Hayashi? I understand the importance of communication and implementing the concerns that you have. My question is what is the current process for the DOE to be involved in the process with the SFA?

Well we con- The Department continues to look for opportunities to collaborate with the School Facilities Authority. And so this, should this bill pass, it definitely would support that collaboration.

Understood. The question is what is the current process of- of collaboration and communication? Is- Is there any formal process of communication?

We- We do have a meeting set up- meetings set up with the School Facilities Authority. And we are- we are working on ensuring that those meetings occur. It is a work in progress and so we continue to look forward to working together with them.

Okay. I mean I- I would just presume that there would be open communication and you could send them emails, you could call them, you could explain concerns, points of information that you would like them to consider. And are- are those things ongoing?

We definitely continue to work to improve those modes of communication. I think it's really important that communication is a two way- two way street for it to be effective. And so we definitely look forward to continue to working with SFA.

Okay. I'm kind of hearing not a clear answer, but appreciate you trying to express yourself. So obviously you do have concerns with communication then.

Yes. We're always looking for ways to improve what we're doing together with the School Facilities Authority.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, Representative. Any other questions? If not, thanks very much to the testifiers. Let's move on to our final measure today. House Bill 1343 relating to education. This measure requires the Board of Education to adopt a policy that bans the use of phones and related devices by students during school hours.

First up, we have written testimony with comments from the Hawaii State Board of Education. Next, we have written comments of support from the Hawaii County Office of the Mayor and written testimony and support from three individuals. Is there anyone else wishing to testify in House Bill 1343? Seeing none.

Thanks very much to all the testifiers on all these measures. We're going to go to the top of the agenda for decision-making. Okay. House Bill 194, House Draft 1 relating to Maritime Day.

I propose we pass this out as is. Questions or concerns Members? If not, Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on House Bill 194 as is. Chair and Vice Chair vote Aye. Representative Belatti?

Aye.

Representative Cochran is excused. Representative Hashem.

Aye.

Representative Kahaloa. Excused. Representative Perruso.

Aye.

Representative Takayama.

Representative Todd. Excused. Representative Garcia.

Aye.

Reservations. Representative Shimizu.

Reservations.

Aye.

Representative Kahaloa just arrived. Would you like to vote? We're just-

Yes please, aye.

Okay. Aye for Representative Kahaloa. Representative Shimizu.

Aye.

Okay. Recommendation adopted.

Thank you. Moving on to the next measure. House Bill 458, House Draft 1 relating to Brother Joseph Dutton Day. On this measure, we just need to make some technical amendments for clarity, consistency, and style. And then I recommend we pass it with those few technical amendments. Any questions or concerns, Members? If not, Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on House Bill 458 HD1 with amendments. Representatives Cochran and Todd are excused. Are there any noes or reservations?

Reservations.

Reservations for Representative Garcia. Okay. Hearing no others, recommendation adopted.

Voting on House Bill 957 HD1 as is. Representatives Cochran and Todd are excused. Are there any noes or reservations?

Thank you and thanks to the advocates. Next, House Bill 957, House Draft 1 relating to Laulau Day. I recommend we move this out as is. Questions or concerns Members? If not Vice Chair for the vote.

No vote.

No vote for Representative Garcia. Okay. Hearing no others, recommendation adopted.

Thank you. Next Bill. House Bill 345, House Draft 1 relating to the state shrimp. On this measure we need to make some technical amendments for clarity, consistency and style. And with those technical amendments, I recommend we pass this. Questions or concerns Members? If not, Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on House Bill 345 HD1 with amendments. Representatives Cochran and Todd are excused. Are there any noes or reservations? Hearing none. Recommendation adopted.

Thank you. House Bill 901, House Draft 1 relating to public charter schools. I would like to adopt the the recommended amendments from the Attorney General. I do have prior concurrence from the education Chair. With those amendments, I would like to move this out. Questions or concerns, Members? Representative Perruso.

I have the same concerns I expressed during my questioning. So I'm going to be a no on this Bill.

Understood. Thank you. Other questions or concerns? If not, oh yes, Representative Belatti.

I think just because this was such a curious Bill, I did look into the testimony in the earlier Commission in the earlier hearing and I think there was a notation that this would create a lot of work for the board and that they might need additional resources to be able to take on a timely, a heavy, a potentially heavy appeals process. So that's just one of the concerns. So for that reason, I'll vote with reservations.

Understood. I'm just looking at the Board of Education testimony. They don't mention anything about that this time around. But I appreciate you letting me know that that's what they said in earlier testimony.

It was in fact actually not the Board. It was Waialae Charter School noting that the Board of Education would need adequate resources and capacity to handle these appeals.

Okay. So it was one of the charter schools that mentioned it.

Recognizing that they would need resources.

Thank you for that information. Other questions or concerns? If not, recommendation to move out HB 901 HD1 with amendments. Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB 901 HD1 with amendments. Representative Cochran and Todd are excused. I have a "with reservations" for Rep. Belatti and a no vote for Rep. Perruso. Are there any additional noes or reservations? Okay, hearing none. Recommendation adopted.

Thank you. Next measure, House Bill 1066, House Draft 1 relating to the Early Learning Board. I'd like to move this out as is. Questions or concerns Members? If not, Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on House Bill 1066 HD1. Representatives Cochran and Todd are excused. Are there any noes or reservations? Hearing none. Recommendation adopted.

Thank you. Next Bill. House Bill 1069, House draft One relating to education. I recommend we move this out as is. Questions or concerns, Members? If not, Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on House Bill 1069 HD1 as is. Representatives Cochran and Todd are excused. Are there any noes or reservations?

Reservations.

Reservations for Representative Garcia. Okay. Hearing no others. Recommendation adopted.

Thank you. Final Bill. House Bill 1343, House Draft One relating to education. I recommend we move this out as is. Questions or concerns, Members? If not, Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on HB 1343 HD1. Representatives Cochran and Todd are excused. Are there any noes or reservations? Hearing none. Recommendation adopted.

Thank you. There being no further business before this Committee, we are adjourned.

Welcome, everyone, to the House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs. It is Friday, February 21st, at three p.m. in Conference Room 325. We're here for the purposes of considering House Bill 1118, House Draft one, and I wanted to ask people who are testifying.

In order to allow as many people to testify as possible, I'm going to request that you keep your testimony to one minute. I know it's short, but we're going to try to get through as many people as we can because we want to hear you. At one minute, I'll ask you to summarize if you haven't stopped.

You can hear a timer going in the background. For those who are testifying on Zoom, please keep yourself muted and your video off while waiting to testify, and then turn your video off and your microphone off after your testimony is complete. That helps with people's bandwidth issues.

And the Zoom chat function is really only for technical issues, if you have them. And you'll be able to talk to our technical staff, but you're not able to send me messages. If you're disconnected, don't panic.

Rejoin as soon as you can and send a chat message to the technical staff, and I'll do my best to include you in when you return. If there's a network failure, the power goes off in the building or whatever, and we have to reschedule the hearing.

We will make sure to post appropriate notice so you'll know when we're coming back. If you're testifying on Zoom, please avoid using any trademarked or copyrighted images because that kicks us off of YouTube and we want to be on YouTube so everyone can see us. This is a public process and we want to make sure we're transparent.

Please conduct yourself with aloha and refrain from profanity or any uncivil behavior. You know, it's okay to disagree, but let's not be disagreeable. Let's listen to each other with respect and don't give any comments, clapping or booing, or yay, or anything like that.

It's best if we just listen to each other with respect and move on to hear the next testifier. Okay, so what we're going to do is I'll be calling up people. We're going to start with organizations first, with one exception, Mr. King, and then we'll go from organizations to individuals.

I'll call up five at a time, and you just testify one at a time. But you'll know who you are and you'll be prepared so that we can try to move through as quickly as we can. So I really appreciate your kokua. Okay, first up, we have the Department of Education with comments.

Anyone here from the Department of Education? Members, I refer you to the testimony, the written testimony from the Department of Education. Next, we have the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. Welcome Che, please introduce yourself and proceed.

Aloha, Chair, committee members. My name is Che Silvert, for the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities. I'm here for my boss, Daintry Bartoldus. We're going to stand our written testimony and support.

I will summarize our testimony, which is that for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, there's a lot of them that have immunocompromised disorders that go along with it. Herd immunity is incredibly important to our population. Without it, they're basically not allowed to leave their homes. So we're going to support measures that protect our herd immunity, make sure we don't fall below that level. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next, the Department of Health. Welcome, Dr. Fink. Please proceed.

Chair Tarnas, Vice Chair Poepoe, committee members, I greatly appreciate hearing your hearing this measure. I'm Dr. Kenny Fink, the Director of Health, and I support this measure. But I don't do so lightly.

With the responsibility to protect and promote the health of the public, I feel compelled to proactively raise awareness of the increasing risk of vaccine-preventable disease in Hawaii. Vaccination rates have been declining nationally and in Hawaii, and this has been associated with an increase in outbreaks.

For example, measles was announced to officially be eliminated in the US in 2000. However, in 2023, there were four outbreaks on the mainland and 59 cases in total. And in 2024, this increased to 16 outbreaks on the mainland and 284 cases in total.

Of the 2024 cases, 42 percent occurred in children younger than five years old, and just over half of them were hospitalized. I was unable to find mortality data. So far in 2025, according to the CDC, as of February 20th, 93 measles cases have been reported across eight states.

Most notable is the current measles outbreak in Texas, which has developed just since the last time I testified on this measure. Texas has a statewide measles, mumps, and rubella or MMR vaccination rate of 94.3 percent and a non-medical exemption rate of 3.6 percent.

This compares to Hawaii, which has an MMR vaccination rate of only 89.8 percent and a non-medical exemption rate of 5.3 percent. In Texas, like Hawaii, the average doesn't reflect pockets of higher and lower rates. Today, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services reported 90 cases so far from their measles outbreak.

Okay, let's see here.

59 cases are from Gaines County, where the outbreak is thought to have begun. Gaines County has a population of 23,000. 10 years ago it had a non medical exemption rate of 7.5 percent. Last year it was 17.6 percent. There are three schools in Gaines County and their vaccination rates range.

Could I ask you to summarize?

While we've not yet had a measles outbreak in Hawaii, we are at risk. And digging into the data from Texas, I'm even more concerned about our risk. I'm concerned that grandfathering in those with existing exemptions prolongs our vulnerability. When we look at the percentage of the population it's below herd immunity.

The non-immunized population is no longer protected and at risk of infection. The percentage that needs to be immunized to have herd immunity depends on the contagiousness and we are at high risk of a measles vaccine. Being below herd immunity means that those who are not vaccinated are at risk.

Those who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons are at risk and the entire community is at risk. So when kids are not protected at school and immunized, it is not a safe place for everybody and it increases the risk for the entire community.

In conclusion, I understand that this measure is controversial, and there will be compelling arguments for and against. While we may disagree on how, I would like to believe that we all share the goal of keeping our keiki healthy and safe. Too often it seems a crisis happens and then we react.

We might ask ourselves what could we have done to prevent it? Now is the time to prevent a measles outbreak. We have the opportunity to be proactive and protect our keiki and community from vaccine preventable diseases. I don't know for how long we'll have this opportunity to avert a crisis. This is an important policy decision.

I hope this measure continues to advance and I mahalo you for this opportunity for discussion. Thank you for hearing this measure and this opportunity to provide testimony.

Thank you very much. If I could ask, since you're right in the camera field. Not you. Could you just not make gestures because you're right in the camera field. Thank you. Next is Michael Golojuch, Pride at Work on Zoom. Please proceed.

Good afternoon. Michael Golojuch Jr., President of Pride at Work. He him pronouns on behalf of Pride at Work. We want to thank you for hearing this bill. We stand strongly support of it. You're going to hear religious freedom come up a lot today in these hearings. And just remember, religious freedom ends when it purposely goes out to.

When someone purposely uses their religion to go out and hurt someone. And by not getting our keiki immunized, does hurt their, does hurt our entire population. So we encourage you to pass this bill.

We need to protect not only our keiki, but also our, our nurses and the rest of our healthcare professionals, because we find it ironic that people don't believe in science when it comes to vaccines, but will take their kids to an emergency room when they're coming down with measles.

So we ask you to pass this bill, protect our keiki, protect those immune immune-compromised, and please move it forward. Mahalo.

Thank you very much. Next we have Bo King. So why don't you come on up?

Come on up, Beau.

Come on up, Beau.

I'm going to be speaking for Beau. I'm Beau's mom, Julianne King. Because Beau, is an unreliable speaker and.

Members, you have the testimony we printed out for you. Please proceed.

And just as a postscript, Beau was documented vaccine-injured at age three by Dr. Richard Kelly, a metabolic geneticist at Johns Hopkins Kennedy Krieger. Beau was one of the plaintiffs in the vaccine injury compensation program called Autism Omnibus, in which five over 5,000 families were lumped together.

Recently, a motion has been filed alleging that the Department of Justice lawyers committed fraud and that fraud led to thousands of families of vaccine-injured children being denied the right to compensation and the right to have their cases heard. This is Beau's testimony. Aloha, Chair. I oppose this bill. I am vaccine-injured and now have autism.

Vaccines should always be a choice and never forced on anyone. You have no idea what it's like to be vaccine-injured and how difficult my life is. Vaccines are not perfect and can have serious side effects because they are not tested like regular drugs. We don't really know how safe they are.

I want no child to go through what I go through. Mahalo, Beau King. And so, Beau uses communication called spelling to communicate. And Beau, do you want to say anything? What do you want to say? Go ahead.

Do you want to. Do you want to sign your name?

Thank you.

Beau, you want to just write your name? B and E and A and U. You want to say anything? Yeah. Okay. How about.

I, N, O, N. Get it, get it.

P, N, P, N, O, N, S and E. I oppose.

Thank you very much, Mr. King. And thank you to the family for being here. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Just out of deference, we've got a family with some youngsters here. Let's have you come up. If you tell me your name and that way you're not going to try. It's difficult to keep them occupied.

Please come on up and provide your testimony. That'd be great.

This is for the record.

I'm sorry. Your name again, please.

Juanita De La Garza.

Okay.

Thank you. Please proceed.

And I'm Daryl De La Garza. We're here on behalf of myself as well as Giovani De La Garza.

And then everything that we are saying is for the record.

Yes.

Okay. First of all, we want to say mahalo for aloha, all of us that have been through so much, through malpractice and vaccine injuries. On behalf of Giovanni, he is a testimony of childhood vaccines that are mandated for school and readiness for DOE. At my 16th month shot is when we seen major regression.

We've seen loss of communication. So not a normal child anymore. My child came back somebody different, not communicating, no eye contact, no cognitive skills. And everything was due to an injury of a vaccine and malpractice.

Look up here so you can see the camera.

Yes. I'm addressing everybody in this room out of respect to myself, land and country, and God. So I speak on behalf of him, and he is a true testimony of injury. And then I speak on behalf of my other son who has not been medically induced or hurt through malpractice.

I have kept him safe because of religious vaccine exemptions.

And we're so grateful and thankful for you guys allowing our families to keep safe from malpractice and from hurting our future generation, who's supposed to be mayors and representatives and council members to lead our land and to lead our country as Hawaiians, as people, as just religious act of freedom of consciousness. I can't even speak.

But we have a constitutional right to be able to protect life and property.

Thank you. I appreciate you being here. Thanks for taking that time to be with us. I want to ask people to not stand in front of the doorway. We need to keep that open in case of an emergency. So everyone who's standing in the doorway, please go outside and watch on the monitor and listen.

We can't have people standing in front of the door. So if you're standing there, I need you to go outside. You heard me. We don't want to stop the hearing. I need you to go outside. Okay? Please.

For the record, can we get a full minute for him because this is.

Please go ahead. Yes, I'm just trying to.

Hi, my name is. This is for the record. My name is Mr. Daryl De La Garza.

I'm also Specialist De La Garza, US Army, retired. For me, when I was in the army, I was subjected to a whole bunch of vaccines. For me, the first time I got injured was OIF1.

Thank you.

It had to do with anthrax vaccine. With me, basically, I was out on missions, basically Task Force 168, and I was out on missions. So I didn't complete all five series. I can't remember what was, it was basically I took three out of the two.

Long story short, very sick, throwing up, shitting myself while getting rocketed bombs and missile for like, I don't know 10, 15 hours, you know what I mean? And so I was sick for like almost a week, two weeks. I got out of the military, went back in when Obama called me back in, took some more vaccines.

I got sick again. I tried to tell them, hey, you know, I'm having some kind of reaction. So long story short, I want to address deceit. There's deceit in the wording. Some of the wording that's being used is we're calling toxic ingredients. We're calling, basically.

I need to ask you to summarize.

Okay, so we're basically calling poison toxic ingredients. And if you do enough research, you're going to find out that, you know, everybody's going to get a reaction to poisoning. Thank you.

I know you support each other, and that's great, but let's just keep this going here. Anyone who's standing in the access way, I need you to be outside, okay? I'm just trying to keep safe in here. We're trying to keep each other safe. No, you can't use those chairs. Sorry.

Okay, so next we have George Soros not present. I don't want. If you're going to continue to provide commentary like that, I'll ask you to leave, okay? I'm trying to be very courteous. I ask you to be courteous. Next, Jamie Detwiler.

Wow, that was very moving testimonies. Jamie Detwiler, Hawaiian Islands Republican Women in strong opposition of HB 1118 HD1. But really, my heart today is a heart of a mom and a grandmother community advocate. Sorry, the previous testimonies were very moving. As previously stated, the root of this Bill comes from a place that's not right.

And I say this because it is a violation of our First Amendment right. In a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision on Kennedy vs. Bremerton School District, the Supreme Court found that Mr. Kennedy's expressions of religious freedoms were protected by the First Amendment.

Our own Hawaii State Constitution, Article 1, Section 4, says, no law, I repeat, no law shall be enacted respecting an establishment of religion. This is what we're talking about today. All the other finer points in the Bill are moot because anything that is repugnant to the Constitution is void and unenforceable.

Let me ask you to stop.

Bottom line. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Always, always good to see you, Ms. Detweiler. Thank you. Okay, next. Christina Everett on Zoom. Not present. Okay, I'm going to call the five names. If Christina could come in. So Christina Everett, Jay Kawalu, Margaret Mejia, Kim Hayne, and American Academy of Pediatrics. So first up, Christina Everett, Jay Kawalu. Please come on up. Christina Everett.

Is Jay Kawalu here? Margaret Mejia, Kim Haine and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Please proceed.

Christina Everett with Project Nehemiah. Woe unto the man who calls evil good and good evil. This is about stripping away our religious rights. This is about power, and it is about control. This is about taking a hold, taking a hold of our rights to, sorry.

Make decisions as parents, as mothers, and as we have seen who have testified, it is about the majority of families who has been hurt by this type of act. So I strongly oppose to this Bill. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next. Jay Kawalu on Zoom. Not present. Next. Margaret Mejia. Not present. Kim Haine. Welcome, please. Kim Haine.

Aloha, Committee Members. Thank you so much. My name is Kim Haine. I am testifying on behalf of Hawaii for Informed Consent. And we strongly oppose HB 1118 HD1. We do stand on our written testimony, but I'd like to offer a couple comments. The main thing being that you already know this Bill is unconstitutional and it's highly discriminatory.

But what you might not know is how badly this is going to harm our children. It's going to harm a whole new religious minority of kids that won't have access to schools. And the DOE even points it out in their testimony. We saw what happened to kids during COVID Right.

We saw families have an increase in domestic violence, in apathy, and obesity, and God forbid even suicide. And I don't think you're looking at that aspect of this Bill. The other thing I'd like to mention is that your compelling state interest is flawed.

When we have outbreaks, it's not just due to a decrease in vaccine uptake, but it can also be due to vaccine failure. And there is a lot of medical literature that stands by that. In fact, we saw a mumps outbreak right here in Hawaii in 2019 in our fully vaccinated college students.

We saw a mumps outbreak in a 100% vaccinated Navy ship. So how do we explain that? There is more science. I'll summarize.

Can you summarize, please?

Yeah. The American people, they delivered a mandate in a huge way to our highest federal offices, including our highest health offices. The Secretary of HHS, and I think you're going against the grain here. The court of public opinion right now, they care about faith, freedom and government transparency. That's what they care about.

And I would like to share that. There's an organization called Informed Consent Action Network, and they know this. They know that courts also saw what happened with medical mandates and COVID. And they're already meeting with families as well as schools in our state, and they're ready to bring a lawsuit if this Bill is passed. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next on Zoom. American Academy of Pediatrics, Hawaii chapter. Please proceed.

Good afternoon. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. Please proceed.

Okay. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. We stand on our written testimony. I would like to just make a couple of quick points. One is that there are certain specific vaccine preventable diseases, most importantly measles, but also pertussis.

That we are at high risk of an outbreak because we do not have herd immunity, because we have high levels of unvaccinated children in our schools, and also because young infants for measles cannot be are not usually vaccinated until age one. So measles has a high rate of hospitalization and it is very contagious.

Up to 90 to 95% of exposed unvaccinated people will contract measles and need to isolate for 21 days, are potentially longer, and the hospitalization rate is 20 to 30 percent. So if we have a measles outbreak in this state, we have the potential to collapse the healthcare system.

And we have a potential for children to die who would otherwise survive if they were able to receive the care that might not be possible if we had hundreds and hundreds of measles cases all at once. And all of this can be prevented by vaccines which are in fact safe and effective.

So the state has a compelling interest in keeping our population safe and in preventing the healthcare system from collapsing. So thank you very much for hearing our testimony.

Thank you very much. The next five individuals testifying. Mapuana Tector. After that, Austin Shiloh Martin, Jasmine Therese Esguerra, Gary Cordery, and Sophia Guglielmelli. So first up, Mapuana Tector. Not present. Austin Shiloh Martin on Zoom. Please proceed.

Aloha. Thank you everyone for making our jobs easier to win house seats next election. This is really couldn't make it easier for us. I stand on my written testimony, but I do need to deliver, I guess a grammar lesson. So a pressing interest of the government? No, this is a speculative interest.

We're talking about diseases with less than 1% mortality rate for one thing. So the fear mongering is incredible. But forget about the mortality rate because this isn't really about that. This is about informed consent. What separates the people who are trying to violate informed consent for their scientific certainty, which is far from a settled matter.

But even if it were, what separates them from the same eugenicists of the 1930s German Administration? This is like Nazi policy. This is not aloha. This is tyranny with a lei. And it's not okay guys, look, I've been vaccine injured and my injury is not medically documented.

I would not be able if I were in this situation, If I were in school, I would not be able to escape suffering other injuries. And there are lots of other people like me.

May I ask you to summarize please?

Yeah, I will summarize. Violating informed consent is not pono. You do not have a pressing state interest to be able to overcome parents rights and the first amendment bodily autonomy and our right to say no to medicine that we don't want to take. We are the authority on our own bodies. Nobody made you God over us.

People here who are pushing this Bill should be noted as those who do not agree with informed consent. And frankly, I don't think anybody like that should be holding public office. I yield.

Thank you very much. Next. Jasmine Therese Esguerra. Not present. On Zoom? Not present on Zoom. The five, I still have two more to call, but the five people after, I want you to be ready because there's a delay in the audio outside, Tamara McKay, Master Shelby Pikachu Billionaire, Leianah Kahahawai, Don King and Cheryl Toyofuku. Okay. So please be prepared to testify.

Next person is Gary Cordery on Zoom. Not present. Okay, Next person. Sophia Guglielmelli on Zoom. No. Okay, not Present. Next. Tamara McKay on Zoom. Yes. Please proceed Ms. McKay.

Thank you Committee. I'm Tamara McKay and I strongly oppose HB 118, which would eliminate non-medical exemptions for school immunization requirements in Hawaii. Also, as the daughter, as my father was a victim of injury and died because of the vaccine. While public health is important, this Bill directly conf-

Wouldn't this Bill conflict with President Trump's recent Executive Order on Valentine's Day which prohibits federal funding for schools that mandates COVID vaccines? And if passed, wouldn't Hawaii risk losing critical funding for education - educational funding which supports programs like special education and assistance for low income students?

Beyond physical risks, HB 1118 threatens parental rights, religious freedoms by removing exemptions despite federal protections under the First Amendment. The Bill also disregards the role of parents and physicians in making medical decisions, particularly given the low transmission risk of COVID-19, especially among children.

Evidence from the Amish community, where vaccine refusal is common, shows significantly lower outbreaks compared to heavily vaccinated populations, further challenging the necessity of mandatory immunization policies. Another critical question remains. Who will take accountability for vaccine injuries?

If vaccines are as safe and effective as the proponents claim, then those enforcing those mandates should be held liable for any adverse expenses effects. However, under current policies, vaccine manufacturers and government agencies are shield from liability, leaving families with no or little recourse if their child suffers a severe reaction.

May I ask you to summarize? Please.

I'm finishing up. Thank you. HB 118 can trigger legal challenges including against the Executive orders, religious freedoms and federal education laws. For these reasons, I urge the Committee to vote no on HB 1118 to protect Hawaii schools, funding, and fundamental rights. Aloha.

Thank you very much. Next. Master Shelby Pikachu Billionaire.

Present. Right here.

Please proceed.

[Speaking Hawaiian and Japanese]

To make things fast for all of you, just say no. Aole ea. No problems. Just say no. Because we don't vaccine anybody. Just bend over. You want to go to heaven? I don't think anybody wants to die. So you don't want to take a shot? I'm an Air Force veteran. I'm not going to get shot.

I got shot like the other guy. Even know what I got shot with? We can't read those hyperbole. Have you read the name of the vaccines on that thing downstairs with the Lower Freedom Coalition. I can't pronounce that. Miska-nika-lika-lika-chicka-rica-chicka. You don't know what you're going to put that inside.

You're going to put inside of your kids when you've seen these kids like that? Heck no. But I can tell you, if somebody says yes, I can guarantee you, because I may not do it.

But someone out here with all my Caucasian friends with money might sue you guys for a defamation of character for poisoning their kids and hurting them. And it's going to be unconstitutional against the First Amendment. Breaking HRS 1-1 Judicial President HS5.5 aloha, you know, spirit law and all that stuff.

So you guys should just say better, save our time so we can barbecue, go home, fight traffic, and just say no. I implore the chair and Vice Chair just say no. He can save time. Got to pass it over to the Senate. Just say no. Just like say no to drugs. Thank you very much. Aloha.

Thank you very much. Next. Leianah Kahahawai. Not present. Next. Don King.

I'm going to take Don's spot. I'm his wife and he's sick today.

Don.

I oppose.

You're taking Don King?

Yes.

You're speaking on Don King's behalf?

Yeah, we wrote together. Yeah.

Please go ahead.

And you introduced you now.

My name is Julianne King. I'm Beau's mom and Dawn's wife. And we oppose this Bill because it disregards the real and harmful impact vaccines can have on children like my son Beau.

When Beau was three, we went to Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins where he was found to have an underlying mitochondrial disorder by a metabolic geneticist. The doctor said Beau's body could not handle the vaccine schedule which triggered his autism.

We filed a claim with the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, the only place families can seek justice since vaccine manufacturers are immune from liability.

At that time, the DOJ consolidated all the petitions for autism into the Autism Omnibus Proceedings and selected six representative test case as the basis for determining the outcomes of the remaining 5,400 cases, one of which was Beau's case.

It was revealed that the DOJ attorneys concealed evidence from Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, their expert witness, who reversed his stance in one of the cases, admitting that vaccines could cause autism in some children like Beau with underlying mitochondrial disorder.

The DOJ fired their expert and continued to use his original testimony. In 2019, Dr. Zimmerman filed an affidavit explaining the cover-up and a motion has been filed alleging that the Department of Justice lawyers committed fraud. But...

May I ask you to summarize?

...that fraud led to thousands of families of vaccine injured children being denied the right to compensation and the right to have their cases heard. And the misconception that autism is not caused by vaccines. Beau now requires lifelong care support provided by the state.

And the question is should be asked answered before we increase the number of vaccines given to children that could be like Beau. So thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Ms. King. The person next is Cheryl Toyofuku. While Cheryl's coming up, I'll read the next five names. Rachel Bui, Mandy Kawasaki, Melissa Lati, Kerri Yeakey, and Sheila Medeiros. If you could be prepared to testify, that'd be great. Back to you, Cheryl Toyofuku.

Aloha. My name is Cheryl Toyofuku and I'm a mom, I'm a grandmother, I'm a retired registered nurse, I'm a health advocate. And 30 years ago I did transition to more natural, non-toxic health care. I am in strong opposition of HB 1118.

It seems that more authority is being given to our Department of Health and this overreach is seriously being questioned by the people of Hawaii. History reveals vaccine agendas are followed by DOH, often funded by pharmaceutical companies...

...so we're following the money and three letter agencies such as the CDC, Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization, WHO and also the WEF, the World Economic Forum. And so the flawed, especially the flawed science of herd immunity and the disturbing mantra of vaccines are safe and effective continue to be promoted to the multitudes.

But they're now waking up. They're now hearing and doing their own research. So parents and lawmakers, please do your research. The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, the VAERS, of numerous vaccine injuries along with the vaccine death reports are increasing.

The increasing CDC childhood immunization schedule with 79 doses of various vaccines and their toxic ingredients. So 79 doses for these children of 16 to 17 different vaccines.

May I ask you to summarize, please?

Sure. So families are really desiring to have healthier options. Let's allocate funds to healthier school lunches or exercise, better agricultural practices and so forth. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Next, Rachel Bui on Zoom. Not present. Next, Mandy Kawasaki on Zoom. Not present. Next, Melissa Lati in person. Not present. Next. Kerri Yeakey. Y-E-A-K-E-Y. Yeakey. Yeakey. Sorry for mispronouncing. Please proceed. Aloha.

My name is Kerri Yeakey and I am the mother of a 15 year old vaccine under child. I want to thank you guys for masking our kids and closing the doors because gave us four years to really prepare and homeschool. But it's not fair to everybody else. Not everybody has the ability to homeschool their children.

This will cause a mass exodus for children moving out of schools because of this kind of draconian overreaching Bill. It is sad because while 10% of the United States has pulled the COVID off the schedule, banned in other states, here we are in Hawaii moving backwards. Why?

So I want all of you to remember, if you vote for this, that's your children and your grandbabies. Just wait. The MAHA movement is here.

Thank you very much. Next person is Sheila Medeiros. For Sheila, when she comes up, I'm going to read the next five names. If they could be preparing themselves. Jessica Montero, Leata Riviera Medeiros, Christina Laney Mitra, Nicholas Canetta and Christopher Montero. Please proceed.

Aloha Chair, Aloha Committee. I'm Sheila Medeiros. I'm a mother of a vaccinated injured child. She has autism. I just ask any of you, have you ever had a child or a grandbaby with autism? Have you ever had to deal with the traumatic changes that they deal with every single day?

If you don't, I really would hope you would consider all of these experiences because you haven't. I demand transparency regarding the number of opposition and supportive votes of HB 1118. The People's Vote should determine whether a Bill passes or is deferred.

Chair Takayama, who sits right there of the House Health Committee chose to move forward with this Bill despite a significant presence of opposition both in person and online. We the people require a visual count of votes in each Committee to hold the Committee chair and its Members accountable.

It is not up to you, the Chairs and the Committee Members to unilaterally decide what is best for the public. We express our will you serve us, not the other way around. I oppose HB 1118 for several reasons. As I have just stated and my written testimony stands. Thank you.

Thank you very much. The next five people. I've mentioned them already. Jessica Montero.

Can you hear me?

Please proceed.

Hello and thank you for allowing me to testify today. My name is Jessica Montero and I am here to voice my strong opposition to this Bill and urge you to do the same. This Bill represents a direct and unjustified violation of our religious freedoms as protected by both the U.S. constitution and the Hawaii state constitution.

The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion and compelling parents to choose between their deeply held religious beliefs and their child right to an education is an unacceptable government overreach. The ability to make medical decisions for one's child based on religious convictions should remain protected.

Furthermore, there is no current outbreak or public emergency that would necessitate the repeal the repeal of religious exemptions. In fact, in 2023, we only had three measles cases. In 2024, we had zero. The existing system already includes safeguards to protect at risk populations.

Parents who signed the religious exemption form acknowledge that in the event of an outbreak, their unvaccinated child may be required to stay home temporarily. This approach was successfully balanced public health concerns with individual rights for years without issues. If there is a genuine immediate threat, the Department of Health already has mechanisms in place to respond appropriately.

May I ask you to summarize, please?

Yes, I'm almost finished. Additionally, this Bill concerns about government overreach and the inconsistency in body autonomy policies. Many lawmakers support the my body, my choice regarding reproductive rights. Yet this legislation would like to force parents to inject their children with substances that violate their religious beliefs or be denied access to education. Thank you. Please oppose this Bill.

Thank you very much. Next. Leata Riviera Medeiros on Zoom. Not present? Not present. Next. Christina Laney Mitre in person. Not present. Okay, I'm going to read out some additional names here. The next person, oh, you're Christina.

No, I'm Margaret, but I missed my name. I was parking. Very minimal parking. There's lots of people here.

I'm sorry. Your name, please?

Margaret Mejia, Hawaii Christian Coalition.

Okay.

Okay. I'm representing 35,000 Members. If you include their spouse and children, their spouses and children, it's over 130,000 people. Hawaii Christian Coalition strongly opposes HB 1118 relating to non medical exemptions to immunization requirements.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the Hawaii State Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. There was only one case cited with Connecticut that won in the Supreme Court. And there's multiple states that did not win in the Supreme Court.

Make no mistakes about this. If passed, this Bill will not win in court. Why is this Bill, HB 1118, not being heard in the Education Committee? Since this Bill would in fact directly affect education in Hawaii, is it because the Department of Education does not support this Bill?

Passing this Bill would cause many parents to pull children out of school. Quality parents would no longer volunteer at the schools, and you would also be missing a lot of intelligent children with a bright future.

And I believe you'd lose out on some federal funding. Representatives are supposed to represent the people. And so I hope that you'll see all these people here, especially those vaccine injured. Vaccines are not obsolete and parents who want to give vaccine their children vaccines can still do so.

According to Aloha Freedom Coalition's website, there are some representatives that are receiving money from Big Pharma.

May I ask you to summarize, please?

Sure. The lack of data regarding herd immunity and life expectancy. There's no reliable data regarding herd immunity. There's no data with direct correlation between vaccines and life expectancy. As a matter of fact, it's the opposite. Multiple studies show that that unvaccinated children get sick much less than vaccinated children.

And the one last thing. We're not Connecticut, we're Hawaii. We're not California, we're Hawaii. We're not New York, we're Hawaii. So let's keep freedom of religion in Hawaii and uphold Hawaii's Constitution.

Thank you very much. I'm glad you found parking. Yeah. Okay, let's. So I've got Nicholas Kaneta and Christopher Montero. Next. I'm going to read the next five names. Kayla Roberts, Coral Shaw, Stephanie Wright, Sarah Lum, Siobhan Young and Brett Kulbis. Okay, so back to Nicholas.

Yeah.

Nicholas Kaneta, please proceed.

Aloha. My name is Nicholas Kaneta. Born and raised in Oahu, a husband and a father of three wonderful kids. I'm so tired of watching my home and the island in which I was raised and be submitted to these insane unconstitutional mandates.

Piece by piece, our freedoms are being taken away from us as locals, as taxpaying citizens and as parents. This is not the Hawaii I grew up in. It sickens me that I cannot give my children the same freedoms and happiness I had as a child growing up in Hawaii.

My family and I practice our beliefs and our religions and follow a somewhat strict holistic lifestyle. My kids are naturally birthed, no anesthetics or drugs. My youngest one right there was home birthed. She was born in my living room. Most amazing experience ever. My wife teaches yoga and is a massage therapist.

We believe in natural healing and try to sustain a much natural household as we can. From our ginger-based soaps to my wife washing her hair with apple cider vinegar. She smells like adobo every time I hug her. I love adobo. Anyways, you never find a bottle of Tylenol or ibuprofen in my house.

The kids get sick which is very un- it never happens. When they do get sick, we have manduku honey, lemon, ginger and natural based oil massages from my wife with moxibustion and cupping.

Please summarize.

The point is. The point is. I'm getting there.

Okay, thanks.

The point is we have raised our family like this forever. We live it every single day. During the pandemic, we were persecuted, called names and ridiculed for our beliefs. I even lost my job working as a chef.

I was working for a nonprofit, cooking for quarantine hotels and homeless shelters. And I lost my job for not getting vaccinated. In the end, we persevered and stuck to our beliefs.

Amongst all, we stuck together to get - all to get this, HB 1118, come at us now. I'm so tired of this. My wife and I have tried to raise our children.

Thank you.

To respect others and their beliefs. And even if it doesn't believe it's the same beliefs as ours. It's hard for them to understand that when right now, people's beliefs are being pushed upon ours and they have no right to react back.

And I think it's hard for them to understand that concept that you should have aloha for everybody and their beliefs. Why can't others have this same aloha for us?

Thank you.

Anyways, I oppose this Bill and I hope you guys oppose this Bill too. This would be so much better for us.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kaneta. Christopher Montero on Zoom. Please proceed.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we hear you. Please proceed.

Okay, thank you. Chair, Vice Chair and Committee Members for opportunity to speak today. My name is CJ Montero. I'm 15 years old. I'm a high school student at Hawaii Technology Academy. I'm here because this Bill directly threatens my ability to continue my education in a way that aligns with my deeply held religious beliefs.

As a Christian, my family and I rely on religious exemption to uphold our bona fide beliefs. In this exemption, if this exemption is taken away, I will be. I would be forced to choose between my faith and education. That is not a choice any student should have to make.

If this Bill passes, I will have no option but to withdraw from school, be homeschooled, losing the opportunity to complete my junior and senior years in a traditional setting, but miss out on prom, graduation, and invaluable experiences of learning alongside my peers. But as important as those things are, my faith comes first.

I urge you to oppose this Bill. Every student should have to sacrifice their religious belief, religious freedom, in order to receive an education. Our rights to both religious liberty and public education not be in conflict. Please do what is right. Vote no on this Bill. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next. Kayla Roberts. Not present. Coral Shaw on Zoom. Not present. Next. Stephanie Wright in person. Yes. Please come on up.

I stand before you today in strong opposition for this Bill which seeks the removal of religious exemption from school immunizations. As a mother of five, it frightens me to think how this could negatively affect my children. This proposal does not concern public health.

It strikes at the heart of religious freedom, parental rights and individual liberties, principles that our nation was built upon. For generations, religious exemptions have existed to protect families like mine based on our beliefs, choosing to forego or delay certain medical interventions.

The First Amendment of the U.S. constitution guarantees the right to freely exercise our religious early religion without governmental interference.

Removing this exemption forces families to make an impossible choice to comply with the law that violates our faith or forfeit our children's rights to an education.

This Bill is unfair, targeting religious families, treating us as a public health threat rather than responsible parents making informed health choices for our children's best interest.

It disregards the personal and spiritual convictions that guide our health care decisions. There's no overwhelming evidence that removing religious exemption is going to significantly improve health....

...the health. Public health. In fact, states that have kept these exemptions have not faced widespread outbreaks or health crisises.

May I ask you to summarize?

Please, I just let me get through this. In addition, this Bill creates dangerous precedent. If the government can override this one religious topic, what will stop them from future, from taking away our future? Where is the line drawn instead of taking away religious exemptions? I'm so sorry. I'm just.

I urge you today to uphold the principles of religious freedom and parental choice. Vote against this Bill and stand with the families who seek to exercise their faith without the fear of government intrusion. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next we have Sarah Lum. After Sarah Lum is Siobhan Young and Brett Kulbis on Zoom. Please proceed.

Hello, I'm Sarah Lum. Please don't let it be lost how intimidating this setting can be for a normal citizen. You guys are here every single day, but for us, this is one of the hugest things we'll ever do in our life.

So please respect when we shake or when we're nervous, it's because we're saying something from our heart that is so important to us that we came here today to speak in front of you and tell you our thoughts and our feelings.

That's why we treat you with respect.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

I am here as a stay at home mother. I am privileged with the opportunity to have the time and space to raise my kid at home. I used to be a shipyard worker.

I did my research when I became pregnant and realized all of the risks that were upon me if I had a child in the current medical system. So I chose to do a home birth. And that whole journey sent me down a rabbit hole of new understanding of the toxicity that we live in in this world today.

And just like this family over here, my family course corrected. And we are trying our hardest within this current society to be healthy, to be pure, to be natural. My son is not vaccinated and I want the opportunity to give him an equal education as everyone else.

But with the current situation, I'm seeing that be pulled out from under me. I have to figure out another route to educate my child, to give him the same opportunities as the people who decide to go the course that the government is choosing for them.

And I have a feeling that a lot of these people are going that course because they don't have time to do research because they have to work one or two jobs to pay for their mortgage in this state.

Because you guys are prioritizing issues like this over figuring out, figuring out housing, right, and the financial crisis that we're facing. This is not a priority.

May I ask you to summarize please?

Please focus on something more important. Please oppose this Bill and please consider the equal rights of people who have different decision making than you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. So we've got next two people, Siobhan Young and Brett Kulbis on Zoom. After that is Dawn Poyani Kelly Duell, Shelby Hosanna, Kim no last name, and Marichris Diga-Lazo. So please, if you're any of those individuals, be prepared to testify. Next, Siobhan Young on Zoom. Not present. Brett Kulbis on Zoom. Please proceed. Brett Kulbis.

Thank you Chair Tarnas, Members of the Committee. My name is Brett Kulbis. I'm a 76 year Navy veteran living in Ewa Beach serving resident Hawaii. I strongly oppose Bill 1118. This Bill infringes on occurrence and by extension their...

....Constitutional rights of freedom of religion, which is in the first amendment for a purpose and violates the informed consent. It discriminates against families who choose not to vaccinate their safety based on their deeply held religious beliefs and their valid concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy.

Even Dr. Fauci has changed his stance and said 75 to 80% of a population is sufficient for herd immunity, which we are currently above. No parent should be forced to choose between their faith and their keiki's education. This Bill is set to turn the school parent relationship into a delightful cocktail of mistrust, resentment, and a bureaucratic nightmare.

Because nothing says healthy relationship like stripping away parental rights and forcing medical decisions. What happened to my body, my choice? I urge you to protect our religious freedoms and inform consent and reject this harmful legislation. Mahalo.

Thank you very much. Next. Dawn Poyani. Welcome. Please proceed.

Aloha Committee Members. My name is Dawn Poyani and I oppose HB 1118. As a mother of three, I'm also a postpartum doula and a lactation counselor. I work with babies every day. I have personally witnessed in my own family as well as professionally vaccine injury and harm.

I've also witnessed medical doctors and nurses practice without conscience and they actually give really bad advice to these mothers. I mean bad non-medical advice. I'd like to poke some holes in this argument.

While this is a religious exemption Bill, the argument is not. So it's medical. You guys are making a medical decision for. For a philosophical and religious personal rights decision. 95% vaccination rate is a model. It is a scientific model.

It is not based on real life data. It is based on a scientific model. The model assumes uniform vaccine effectiveness and perfect immune response in the population.

For diseases like measles, public health officials claim that 95% vaccination coverage is needed to prevent outbreaks. However, the number varies widely depending on the disease, vaccine type and transmission dynamics. Measles estimates 90 to 95%.

May I ask you to summarize, please?

Yep. Polio estimates 80 to 85%. COVID. Well, COVID. Anyway, it is really important to treat this number as a, not as a hard rule, but oversimplified complex public health dynamic. Misleading the public into believing that vaccine coverage alone determines disease control.

Thank you.

Is not right. Just. I'm going to just. Vaccine injury denialism based on absence of studies rather than their existence is unjust. Our vaccine science is based on no science. The the studies are not done. There's no true placebo on these vaccines. There's no true study on the entire schedule.

As to every time you guys follow and add another vaccine to our schedule, they don't test the whole schedule to see how that impacts the intelligence and overall health of our children. We need to have our own conscience, our own spiritual rights and our religious exemptions in this state. And to take it away is wrong.

Thank you very much. Next. Kelly Duell on Zoom. D-U-E-L-L. Kelly Duell Not present. Next. Shelby Hosanna on Zoom. Please proceed.

Aloha. Thank you for your time today. Since you are asking everyone to summarize and be as quick as possible, I will do exactly that. And all but two of the only noble representatives that are sitting at that table today, all of you have been served with a formal cease and desist as well.

We have filed FOIA requests on every single one of you. And we will not sleep until we expose your financial interest with Big Pharma. Because it really seems like you've all made up your mind today.

And just also to quickly summarize, we have more than 100 families at the ready to seek full legal action against you in your professional and personal capacity. So if you are not going to be making the right decision today, we will be more than happy to see you all in court.

God is watching and you do the right thing. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next please. Come on. Just treat each other with respect, including those who might not agree with you. Okay.

Aloha. I'm Mapuana Tector.

Wait, wait. I've asked for Kim next.

I was looking for parking.

And then Marichris Diga-Lazo. Go ahead. And you are?

Hi, Aloha. I'm Kim Cordery and I'm representing Aloha Freedom coalition. We have 21,000 followers. Out of the outrage of government overreach, governmental overreach and unconstitutional mandates that were not laws. In 2020, we started Aloha Freedom Coalition, my husband and I.

We were honored to help many people who reached out to us because they were desperate to hang on to jobs. And many lost their jobs because they chose to stand for health and rejecting the pressure of government control.

If this Bill is passed, it not only is dangerous but goes against our religious freedoms and our God given rights. The government has no right to force any toxic substance to be injected into our keiki. Aole yield.

Thank you very much. Next is Marichris Diga-Lazo. And then after that I would ask Mapuana Tector to come up after. After that. And then if I just let me read the next five names. Yana Lynz Bonetti, Kelly Timoteo, Hye Sun Kang, Christy Miller and Jun Kawamura. Okay, let's go back to Marichris.

Aloha. My name is Marichris Diga-Lazo and I'm a mother of a vaccine injured child. My son suffered 20 plus febrile seizures from the ages of 9 months till 8 years old, he sees after getting every vaccination per the schedule doctors recommended. Seeing your child seize is pretty much seeing them die before your eyes.

Therefore, I strongly oppose HB 1118. The Bill, as Representative Garcia so eloquently said, is a direct assault of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution protecting our freedom of religion. It is also in opposition to the Hawaii Constitution. Article 1, Section 4.

No law shall be enacted respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the right of the peace people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This would take our freedom of conscience and freedom to choose.

As a Christian, the conscience comes from my creator. If parents want to vaccinate their child, let them be. It is their right and is also my right to not vaccinate my child anymore. Remember, when there is a risk, there needs to be a choice.

As a mom, a citizen, and a member of this community, I strongly oppose HB 1118. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next. Mapuana Tector. Come on up. Glad you found parking. Please proceed.

Thank you. I stand by my testimony, my written. I'm a Member of the Nanakuli Maeli Neighborhood Board Hawaiian Affairs Committee, and I speak for a lot of us as indigenous people in opposition of HB 1118. And to add with comments, when a child enters school, they're given all the documents, they take it home to the parents.

The parents then have to really thoroughly read. But if this law is passed, it would be not only a violation, it it's undefined uninformed consent. So please take a hard look at what are you going to pass and why would you pass it.

I have four daughters, married, just one child that because of her job, she took it as a registered nurse and she ended up with myocarditis. So she did incur an injury. Just thank God we're doing homeopathic things. But please consider no, thank you.

Thank you very much. On to the next group of five. Yana Linz Bonetti. Not present. Next. Kelly Timoteo. Not present. Next. Hye Sun Kang on Zoom. Please proceed.

Hello.

Yes, we hear you. Please proceed.

Okay, sorry, I forgot my note, but I was just trying to remember. Yeah. I strongly oppose this Bill. Our family has a belief that we don't put anything into our body that's made of using made as a result of other people's death. Our body is sacred.

And all the vaccines except I believe COVID ones are made using aborted fetal cells. So we don't vaccinate. And then our kids. We don't give vaccination to our kids. So if this Bill passes, we'll lose the access to the public education. We cannot homeschool our kids. Please don't take away the access to the public education for us.

I understand there are a lot of people who are concerned about the public health. We agree to keep our kids, keep ourselves at home. If there is any outbreak of a disease that we didn't get vaccinated, such as measles or things like that. And I know some people are worry that...

Please summarize. Ma'am, if I could ask you to summarize, please.

I'm almost done. I'm almost done. So some people are worried that non religious people are submitting the religious exemption for other reasons. We can just require them to like submit a proof of their belief from their church or something like that instead of abolishing the religious right.

And it is important. Respecting other people's belief is really important. And that's what makes Hawaii a paradise. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next. Christy Miller on Zoom. Not present. Next person is June Kawamura. While June's coming up, I'll read the next group. Eric Ozburn, Enriquez Tangaro, Lindsey Noel Magallanes, William Lyle, and Ernest Tomita. Okay, June Kawamura, June Kawamura. Not present. Next. Eric Ozburn on Zoom. Please proceed. Eric Ozburn .

Yes. Aloha. My name is Eric Ozburn and I testify in strong opposition to HB 1118. This Bill which would remove religious exemptions for student vaccinations, infringements upon parental choice and long standing personal religious freedoms.

I speak from personal experience as I have two school age children currently that have active religious vaccination exemptions in place.

And we don't have the means to homeschool and this would directly impact their ability to access education. My opposition stems from my deeply held religious beliefs. As a Christian, I believe that Jesus. Christ is my Lord and Savior and I have a personal responsibility to lead my family in accordance with our faith.

This includes serving as their spiritual leader, provider and protector. In 2023, after 24 years of honorable service in the U.S. air Force, I believed God led me to retire early and I declined the COVID-19 vaccine.

This conviction prompted me to research vaccines extensively and I ultimately concluded that all vaccinations are harmful and go against my religious beliefs.

May I ask you to summarize, sir?

Yes. I strongly oppose for many reasons and respectfully request that you consider the impact HB 1118 will have on families like mine. And uphold the right to religious exemptions for student vaccinations. Mahalo for your time and concern.

Thank you, Mr. Osborne. Next. Enriquez Tangaro on Zoom. T-A-N-G-A-R-O. Tangaro. Not present. Next. Lindsay Noel Magallanes on Zoom. M-A-G-A-L-L-A-N-E-S. Not present. Next. William Lyle in person. William Lyle. Not present. Next. Ernest Tomita on Zoom. Not present.

Okay, the next group is Rachel Labuda, Justin Wong, Tara Gregory, Natalie Fund, Naomi and Terry Armbruster, if that group could be prepared. First up, Rachel Labuda. Not present. Next. Justin Wong.

Hello, Chair and Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Justin Wong and I'm standing in opposition to this Bill. You know, at the end of the day, it does not matter if vaccines work and are safe or vaccines don't work and are dangerous. It doesn't matter if you're a conservative, liberal, religious or atheist.

There are social contracts that we don't break as consumers. The government state cannot force citizens or their children to use products of companies they do not trust, which includes the vaccines.

All the major pharmaceutical companies we know about have a history of falsifying data and bribing doctors and scientists to bypass medical trial phases in order to sell the products. For example, as far back as 2009, Pfizer had to pay a $2.3 billion settlement because of those exact corrupt practices.

Johnson and Johnson will settle a $10 billion lawsuit this year for selling asbestos in their baby powder and downplaying the harmful health effects such as Ovarian Lung and mesothelioma cancer. If Big Pharma has a history of corruption and harming people with their products, why are we pressuring people to take their products?

Why and most importantly, do we consumers not have the choice and right to have full confidence in a seller before deciding to use their products? Perhaps the most damning part about this Bill is the last page where it says people can apply for religious vaccine exemptions with written letters. But the Director. But the.

Sorry, but the Director of health can essentially say to help with your exemptions, this is an emergency. Since when does an emergency mean. Yeah, since when does emergency mean that the government can nullify and suspend your fundamental rights as a consumer, patient and American citizen?

The Constitution clearly shows the limits and boundaries of which the seeking operate within reasons such as it works or it's for the greater good is null and void. And think about it from an atheist perspective. I'm finishing up. What if you're an atheist who has good pattern recognition and you don't trust Big Pharma? If the Bill passes, wouldn't this incentivize an atheist to fake being a Christian?

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate your testimony. Thanks very much, Mr. Wong. Next. Tara Gregory.

Aloha kakou, I'm Tara Malia Gregory. I have a background in child development and neuroscience. I'm a former middle school teacher, a mentor and auntie to vaccine injured children. I strongly oppose HB 1118.

On February 7, Kayana Kau gave testimony on behalf of the Attorney General on page 11, lines 13 to 15, that the language be inserted any religious exemptions would need to be in conflict with the individual's bona fide religious tenets. It's still scratched out.

I propose this Committee take heed of all religious groups like the gentleman that just spoke, constitutional rights under the First Amendment and insert this language. It covers all bona fide religious tenets. I speak as a Bible believing Christian. Here are six ways this Bill infringes directly upon our God given and constitutional rights. 1.

Potential Fetal Cell lines taken from aborted babies, Biblical views of the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. 3. Love thy neighbor as thyself, 4 God's design for family 5 church attendance and 6 Christian education. My written testimony has many peer reviewed over 30 studies and scriptural references that outline each bona fide religious tenet in depth.

This Bill would be infringing upon every single one. The Bible is very clear. We are to obey God rather than man. Mahalo for the time to speak.

Thank you very much for your testimony. Natalie Fun on Zoom. Please proceed. Please unmute yourself Natalie. Yes, we hear you now. Go ahead.

I'm Natalie Fun and I stand in strong opposition to this Bill. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. 1st Peter 2:16 Medicine is not one size fits all. Food is not one size fits all.

Tone and interpretation of even conversation is not one size fits all. We live in a unique body, each with our own individual patterns of thought, action, vitality and heart. Our conscience is formed by our upbringings along with our own lived experiences and studies.

When I became pregnant with my first child, I had the humility to ask myself if there was something I did not yet know about the vaccine debate. Up until this point I was a normal person. My conscience led me to look at the information that mainstream messaging labels as quackery.

I quickly learned that the quack side of the argument fought hard for endless FOIA documents to prove that the science is far from settled. The Children's Health Defense, the Informed Consent Action Network, the High Wire, all provide receipts for their claims.

All of you, all you have to do to know this is to get a bit humble, a bit compassionate and a bit curious. Every person I know who has actually researched vaccine safety beyond the so called paid fact checkers has landed on the Maha side.

I cannot in good conscience put my faith in a product that the manufacturers of said product do not even hold liability for. Please do not have your own product.

If you could summarize please. That'd be great.

They do not have faith in their own product to make money without government protection. Government advertising, some call that propaganda. And in some states, government force. From 1986 to 2023, VAERS has paid out $4.6 billion of taxpayer money to have the backs of these pharmaceutical companies. Are you aware that most vaccines are not trialed with an inert people? Thank you.

Could you please summarize, Ma'am?

I am summarizing. Are you aware that the safety study for Hep B vaccine was only five days? Some of the potential injuries, encephalitis, migraine, seizures, Bells Palsy, and that's only from the nervous system category.

On the actual insert, if you all have not actually gone to the fda.gov and read the inserts, then you cannot make this decision in good conscience. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next. Naomi. L don't know the last name, just. L not present. Okay, I'm going to read some other. Terry Armbruster, if she's. Terry Armbruster's here. While Terry Armbruster is coming up, I'm going to read the next testifiers. Dr. Cassandra Simonson, Meilee Gela, Arthur Hanneman, Crystal Matson, Veronica Lamb and Sarah Kim.

Okay, back to Terry Armbruster

Chair Tarnas, and Committee Members. I'm Terry Armbruster. I'm a longtime resident of Hawaii, and I strongly oppose HB 1118 for several reasons. First, it's unconstitutional. It violates our religious rights. And I just want to remind you that each one of you took an oath to uphold the Constitution to protect our rights and freedoms, not to try to take them away.

And it also violates parental rights. Parents are the guardians of their children's health and well being, and they know what's best for their children's individual needs.

And I propose that if you are trying to force shots on their children without their consent, then you should be held liable and ability to be sued for any harm or injury that be brought upon these children for forcing these shots on them. It also violates the basic right to bodily autonomy.

If you afford the right, my body, my choice, to a woman that wants to kill her baby through abortion, then every other person should be given the right to protect their life from any possible harm or injury from a shot. Also, this is against informed consent.

Anytime there is a risk of harm or death, there must be choice to. There must be choice.

May I ask you to summarize, please?

Yes, I'm almost done. Thank you. There must be choice and there are more natural, healthy solutions, not just toxic injections. And I just want to let you know that I strongly urge you to vote no to HB118 because there will be a lot of lawsuits brought against you.

And most importantly, you can be held accountable to Almighty God, our creator and supreme Judge for trying to mandate actions against our God given free will. So please listen to our choice and protect our freedom of choice. Listen to our voice and protect our freedom of choice. And also stop these bills against our will. We will not stop until you kill this Bill. Thank you. And all God's people said amen.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Dr. Cassandra Simonson on Zoom. Please proceed.