Senate Standing Committee on Hawaiian Affairs

Hello, everyone. This is the Committee of Hawaiian Affairs. We are gabbling in on the 1:00 pm agenda Tuesday, March 18. This is for decision making only. We have three measures on the dockets. This is being live streamed and if for some reason we have to adjourn, we'll reconvene. I'll get the time at that point. First measure is HB576.

It is the recommendation of the Chair to propose an amendment inserting the following language on page 13, line 4 through 9.

This section shall not apply to any transfers of Hawaiian Homes Lands under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act 1920 as amended as any such transfers shall be governed by the provisions of that act, including but not limited to lease conditions stipulating that the lease rationale be for a term of 99 years. So with that, is there any discussion?

Hearing none. Senator Keohokalole, can you go for the vote, sir?

[Roll call]

Thank you. Moving on to the next measure, House Bill 606. It is the recommendation of the Chair to pass as is within the Committee report that requests an appropriation of $50 million. And Vice Chair for the vote.

[Roll call]

Thank you. And on the next measure, HB 1408, recommendation of the Chair to defer indefinitely. Hearing none. We are adjourned. Aloha, everyone. This is a Committee on Hawaiian Affairs. We're gambling in on the 1:10 agenda. 1:10pm agenda on March 18th. We're here in room 224 and we have three measures on the agenda, starting with House Bill 410.

We have Office of Hawaiian Affairs in person.

Aloha. Good afternoon. Chair Richards, Vice Chair Buenaventura, Members of the Committee, Lena Alale, Director of Advocacy on behalf of Office of Hawaiian Affairs. And strong support. This is OHA's budget request.

And it really reflects our strong commitment and confidence in our strategic plan, Manaemauli Ola, to be able to produce measurable results in reducing the persistent gaps that Native Hawaiians face in health, housing, economic development and education. And we plan to do this several ways, including leveraging our existing relationships and partnerships with with other government agencies.

Which serve our beneficiaries and ensuring that we're really doing our best to share State of the art information data that OHA's collected on best practices over the years so that we're moving in unison with other government agencies and addressing these disparities.

And we're also looking at making our progress more transparent to the public and to legislators and our beneficiaries. We really want what we're doing to be data driven, to be able to share out information about how disparities are changing over time and you know, to have the Legislature have that oversight of.

Are we making progress towards our statutory mandates, which OHA has long worked towards. But as we know, you know, conditions, it's harder to live in Hawaii. So there continues to be evolving issues to address and we look forward to collaborating with the Legislature and other government agencies and meeting that mandate moving forward.

So I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Okay, thank you. Next registered to testify in person is Kamai Ohawaiki Anakalea. Okay. It by chance we have on on Zoom.

Not on Zoom chair.

Okay, is there anybody else in the room would like to testify on this? Okay. Hearing none. Moving. I have one other on Zoom. Shelby Pikachu, billionaire. Is he on Zoom?

Not on Zoom chair.

Okay, thank you. For that Measure we have 30 in support and two in opposition. Next measure HB871. We have DHHL registered to testify in person. Do we have anybody on on Zoom?

Nobody on Zoom chair.

All right, thank you. And then we have one in support on that one. And then measure HB 1091, we have one DHHL registered to testify, but they're not here for the last one. So I'm thinking not here for this one. Okay. Hearing no one to testify. Somebody else wants to testify on 1091.

Seeing nothing open up for questions, we had one testifier. So that's it. We're going to move right into decision making. Okay, ready for decision making. Okay. It's recommendation of chair on HB510. Excuse me. 410. Thank you. To pass as is. Chair votes aye. Excuse me. Any discussion? Seeing none. Chair votes aye.

Okay, voting on HB410HD1 chair's recommendation is to pass unamended. Chair votes aye. Vice Chair votes aye. Senator Ihara is excused. Senator Keohokalole. Chair recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. Moving on to HB871 House Draft 1 recommendation of the chair to vote or pass as is any discussion. Chair.

Both side voting on HB871HD1. Chair's recommendation is to pass unamended, noting the excused absence of Senator Ihara. Are there any reservations? Are there any not seeing non Chair recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. And to our final measure, HB 1091 House Draft 1 recommendation in the chair is to pass as is any discussion.

Chair votes aye voting on HB 1091. Chair's recommendation is to pass as is. Noting the excused absence of Senator Ihara. Are there any reservations? Are there any? No. Saying none. Chair recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you, chair. We are adjourned.