Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Environment

Aloha mai kākou, and good afternoon. Mahalo for joining today's AEN, EDU, HWN hearing. I am Mike Gabbard, Chair of the AEN Committee. It's Tuesday, February 3rd, and we're convened here in Room 224. And also video conferencing, which includes the audio and video of remote participants that's being streamed live on YouTube.

In the unlikely event that this hearing is cut short, the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Thursday, February 5th, at 1pm during Hawaiian's time slot. And a public notice will be posted on the legislature's website.

And because of our 90 minute time limit for hearings, there will be a 2 minute time limit for all testifiers and we'll have a virtual countdown timer on the Zoom screen. We have one bill on our agenda today. It's SB 2178, Industrial Hemp Program.

Establishes an industrial hemp program in the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity that includes comprehensive licensing, education, and support for non-cannabinoid industrial hemp cultivation and use. Establishes the Industrial Hemp Program Advisory Board to develop a strategic plan to establish and expand the processing infrastructure and commercialization of industrial hemp.

Requires the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience to support research and development focused on local adaptation, sustainability, and economic development goals. Requires DAB to promote partnerships with Native Hawaiian practitioners, cooperatives, and āina based programs. And adopt state building codes for hemp based materials including hempcrete. So first up to testify we have Parwinder Grewal from UH.

Chair and Vice Chair, Chairs. Parwinder Grewal, Dean of CTAHR. We stand on our written comments that we have submitted, and I'm here for any questions that you might have.

Thank you very much, Dean. Next is Travis T. Moon or Christopher J.I. Leong from the Attorney General's Office. Says Zoom here. You're in person. I'm honored to have you.

Good afternoon. Deputy Attorney General Travis Moon. We previously provided our written comments, and I'm here for any questions if you have any. Thank you.

Thank you. And next we have De Mont Kalai Manaole from Ho`omana Pono.

Aloha mai kākou. De Mont Kalai Manaole, Co-Manager, Ho`omana Pono LLC, a Native Hawaiian advocacy corporation operating on Waianae Coast with our beautiful Senator over here. All right, yeah. So we strongly support this bill. Finally we get something that probably that Native Hawaiians could get into. We know we're always coming to the Legislature begging for money every year.

This could probably be something that we could become self sufficient where the state legislature said in 1990 when you created section 101 of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act that we, you guys want to get Hawaiians on the land in a prompt and efficient manner.

36 years ago you said that. This could be something that could help us get our people on the āina. This could be something that could help us become self sufficient. I mean, I participated with brother Marcus in a thing all day in Wahiawa.

And what I learned that day was the fiber from the stalk of the hemp was able to weave that. And the thing is so strong, it's even stronger than the coconut fiber that we use to put to wrap our armor on a canoe with. Yeah.

So it seems like this is something that industry that can explode to allow Native Hawaiians to be at the table and to be able to thrive on our own homeland. So I really support this bill and I'm glad that there's a lot of support out there and I appreciate the effort. Aloha.

Next is Marcus Serrano from the Hawaii Industrial Hemp.

Aloha, Chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Marcus Serrano, and I represent Hawaii Industrial Hemp. We are in strong support of this bill. This is a program that really focuses on the community.

I've had the opportunity to meet with some of you in respects to this bill, talking about its benefits for the community and for the the islands in Hawaii. Over the past two week, as just mentioned, we held workshops across Oahu, Maui, and Big Island.

With the support of the communities here in Hawaii, we were able to bring Danny Desjarlais from the Lower Sioux over to Hawaii to help facilitate the workshops. And we were able to demonstrate how industrial hemp can be used in our homes and providing a solution to a lot of what's being discussed these days.

SB 2178 really matters because it gives us a framework to start something, something that is community faced, rooted in community. It is something that everybody at the workshops that we hosted kept asking us how and why, where can we get involved? Why aren't we doing this yet?

And so with that, SB 2178, the only recommendation that we have around it is to form the committee first as opposed to putting rules, any kind of limitations on in jumping into the industry. I think that the advisory board can look at how to best help our farmers, our industry. And with that, thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we have Brian Miyamoto from the Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Aloha, Chairs Gabbard, Kim, and Richards, Members of the Committees. I'm Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. Hemp, hemp, hooray. Chair, you normally start these hearings with that. You have our written support. We support the intent.

We've been longtime supporters of hemp as a crop that our farmers can grow. A crop that was once a promising crop, a crop that had a little bit more focus and attention. So we are pleased that there seems to be a little bit more focus and attention back on hemp.

You've heard our concerns in the past were, again, over regulations we're not for. But there needs to be some guardrails where there's some duplicity between state and federal and we don't want to overburden our farmers have to do the same thing with the state and federal governments. But again, with reasonable guardrails.

And we believe this bill can assist in that. Chair, you've talked about hempcrete, about hemp seeds for food, for value added. There's so many opportunities with hemp but we seem to lost the focus on hemp. What's encouraging is behind me is, is the new hemp coordinator within Department of Agriculture Biosecurity.

So again there seems to be some focus back on hemp. I was just on Kauai on Saturday, and that's where we all know that the facility, the one that's been getting a lot of investment, Kaneshiro Farms. And it doesn't sound like there's as much activity there anymore.

So we need to ramp back up, put a little bit more focus on another crop that our farmers can grow that has some soil remediation. All the benefits of another crop, another option for farmers. So thank you.

We appreciate the committees and the Chairs hearing this, and we support the intent again with some guardrails and making sure that it doesn't overburden the farmers. But we also have some regulatory oversight. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you, Brian. Next is DABS, Department of Ag and Biosecurity.

Aloha, Chairs, Vice Chairs, Members of the Committee. Cedric Gates here on behalf of the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. The department supports the intent of this measure and offers comments. And we have our subject matter experts in the room to answer any questions. Mahalo.

Thank you, Cedric. Let's see. Regina Peterson Nani is on Zoom.

Not present on Zoom, Chair.

Okay. Okay. Anyone else wishing to testify on this measure here in person, come forward. Anyone online? Members, questions. Senator Kim.

For department.

Are you one of the experts from DAB?

I'm... Chairs, Vice Chairs. I'm Jun Tulio. I'm the, I serve as the Hemp Program Specialist for Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity.

Okay. Thank you for being here. In the testimony on the last, second to the last line here, you talk about that should this measure be enacted, you would require additional staffing for resources.

If this bill is enacted. So we, the department, the department's position should have additional staffing and resources in order for these responsibilities so be fulfilled.

So can you explain that? I mean, what exact more responsibilities? We're putting together this...

So for education. So we need staffing to implement the education that is being proposed in the bill and also staff in order to do this enforcement activities for the hemp, including monitoring, testing.

Can you give us a breakdown of exactly how many positions and what you need and what their responsibilities are?

So we think of two to three, including me.

What do you do now?

So right now, as I mentioned earlier, I serve as the Hemp Program Specialist. So we do the monitoring of the transportation reports. We also monitor the hemp buffer, growing buffer zones. And aside from that, I also, I'm also helping our division, particularly the commodity branch and, you know, food safety certification audit. This because of also a lack of staffing in our...

So how many... How many people in your division right now? Or how many that do hemp?

I'm the only hemp guy.

You're the only hemp guy?

Yes. But I also do other... I have responsibilities in order to help our division.

Well, they should find like the regular people to do that. If you're doing hemp, then you should be doing hemp 100% of the time instead of us having to hire more people to do hemp. I mean, you may need some support. But...

So right now, because of my hemp, the activities for hemp is not that. So I try to help that.

So again, I would like to see if department can provide to us exactly what your duties are going to be under this and what other personnel you need and what they're going to be doing so that we can be assured that these people are actually have work to do and that are doing it and not doing other things in the department and then what the cost would be. Have you guys estimated the cost? What's the cost?

So for this, the proposed bill ask... So this is the industrial program. So we need to issue licensing for the growers. We also...

Okay, the question is how much do you folks need and for what. How much money do you need for just for positions?

So like around 80,000 for each position.

And how many positions? Three?

Three.

Three plus yourself. Okay, please get us that information before we get to the Ways, if and when we get to the Ways and Means Committee because we're going to have to know more details on these cost and positions. Thank you.

Questions? Senator DeCorte.

Do you folks have any revenue plan that you folks are expecting to be able to fund your own organization at some point, and how long will that be?

When we had this industrial hemp pilot program, so we collected some revenue for that and I think that's around $200. That's all the money we have.

So... Okay, but projecting forward, once you folks are establishing hopefully maybe your folks' program, what are you projecting the revenue to be? I mean I think the point I'm trying to make is that hopefully we can have a department that actually funds itself at some point. So I was just wondering if that was something you folks had projected within your strategic plan.

So I think if this bill will be enacted, so there's this fees that be collected. So I think that will be used by the program to, you know, to support the, for the department to support the program.

Sure. And then I notice in your bill, which I agree with the exemption for Native Hawaiians for that fee to be exempted. Do you have any kind of reporting on how much you're expecting licensing to come in from Native Hawaiian organizations as opposed to non-Native Hawaiian organizations?

So right now since it's the licensing now is under USDA. So, and they don't charge anything. So we... I think there's a gaps there that we need to address because some farmers are also, they have concern with this licensing too, licensing fees that will be charged with this bill. Right now they are not, they are getting free for USDA. So...

We're good. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Anyone else?

So speaking of gaps, how is the responsibilities of currently what USDA and what this bill would provide, what's the difference? So how many more gaps and responsibilities and costs will this bring?

So for the USDA is... The state of Hawaii is being regulated by USDA right now, and they are doing the licensing, they are doing the testing, monitoring, and all this that is being put forward in this bill.

Yes. So would USDA continue to do this or would this be the responsibility...

Our position is to remove this duplication oversight. So since there's already the USDA. So the department thinks that it's... We have several concerns from the farmers. We talk with them and I think the first concern is this overlapping regulations and also added fees that will burden the industry and also harm its economic viability. So that's why we have in our testimony, we pointed that out that, you know, this duplication is a bit of concern for the department.

I guess, Chair, my question or concern is will USDA give up responsibility because we pass this bill?

I think it depends on if this bill is going to be enacted. So whether, you know, because we have to also, USDA also requires us to, you know, put our state plans and for them to approve it. So with this bill... So if we are going to be going to this route through this bill, we should also be applying for, you know, approval from the USDA to run our hemp program in Hawaii.

Okay. I don't really think that answers my question.

Anyone else?

Yeah. Thank you, Chair. So I don't think it's an if, it's a when. The intent is to drive this to get more activity for farmers, building materials, take care of Hawaiians, move things forward. And listening very carefully to what Senator Kim was talking about, got to come to us with something set up and structured.

It's set in DAB right now. We have the program because you exist. But what we need, the Legislature is saying, you're going to get this done. We're not asking your permission. We're telling you you need to have this, and so you need to deliver this to us. There's another hurdle to clear, which is WAM coming forth.

And at that time, the expectation is you will have something lined up. It's my firm belief that this is the right direction. But DAB has got to bring to the table so we know exactly where we're going before it gets its final hurdle cleared. So thank you, Chair.

Okay. We'll go into decision making. Okay. All right. So Chairs having conferred, the recommendation will be to pass SB 2178 with the Attorney General's Office suggested amendments. And we'll also amend the bill to remove the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity licensing requirements and associated responsibilities to avoid duplication of existing USDA licensing authority.

Plus, we'll make technical amendments, including deferring the date to July 1, 2050. We'll blank the appropriation amount and insert it into the committee report for consideration. So for AEN, any discussion? Chair votes aye. Vice Chair.

Chair's recommendation on SB 2178 is to pass with amendments. Chair votes aye. [Roll Call] Recommendation's adopted.

Thank you, Members.

For EDU. Senate Bill 2178, pass with amendments. Chair votes aye. [Roll Call] Thank you.

And for the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs. On Senate Bill 2178, passing with amendments. Any discussion? Chair votes aye. Vice Chair.

Committee, we're going to vote on SB 2178. Recommendation of the Chair is pass with amendments. Chair votes aye. Vice Chair also votes aye. [Roll Call] Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Hemp, hemp, hooray.

We adjourn the meeting.

Hello, everyone. This is the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs. This is our first convening of Hawaiian Affairs in the 33rd Legislature regular session, 2026. We are going to start. Actually, we're going to start out by introducing the Committee Members that are here. So my name is Tim Richards. I'm Chair of Hawaiian Affairs.

I come from District 4, which is on the Big Island. Vice Chair, please.

Rachele Lamosao, representing Senate District 19, parts of Pearl City, Waipahu, Honouliuli, Poopili, and Westlock.

Aloha, Jarrett Keohokalole, Windward side, Kaneohe and Kailua. Anwahua.

Aloha, Samantha DeCorte at Waianae Coast.

Thank you. Thank you, Senator. So first start out by a little housekeeping Aloha. And thanks everybody for joining us. I'd like to, as I said, we've introduced everybody here we are being live-streamed on YouTube. In the unlikely event that we have to abruptly end the hearing, the Committee will reconvene and discuss any outstanding business.

At 1:05pm on the 5th here in this room, a public notice will be posted. Testifiers. You have a two minute time limit, so please adhere to that. And we'll give a little slack, but very little slack. We appreciate your understanding and remind you that if you have submitted written testimony, please stand upon that.

If you don't have anything to add, given that we're going to dive right into our agenda. First up, that was on the agenda, Senate Bill 2260, 2260. That has been removed from the agenda. I discussed with the introducer. And there are some issues and challenges and do fully appreciate what public testimony has brought forth.

So we are not going to be hearing that measure at this time. Moving on to Senate Bill 2702. We have four Members, or, excuse me, for testimony in support. Dumont, you're the first. You're here in person. Please come up. Okay, thank you very much. Next. Director Watson.

Yes, we all stand.

Okay, thank you. Is there anybody else here or on Zoom that would like to publicly testify. Committee Members, any questions? Seeing none. Move on to our next Bill, Senate Bill 2785. It relates to economic development. We have two testimony in support and two in opposition. DuMont. Okay, thank you. And Kali.

Same.

Okay, thank you. Committee Members, any questions? Seeing none. Moving on. Senate Bill 2790 relating to Hawaiian homes appropriating funds that has to do with inventory of Molokai irrigation system. Colleen, you're here. Okay, thank you. DuMont.

All right. Aloha. De Mont Kalai Manole, Co Manager, Ho`omana Pono LLC. Native One IVC Corporation operating on a one night coast. And we stand in strong support of this one. And I really hope that this passes because the independent nation of Molokai, as I call them, is. They're hurting over there and they need help and they need help with infrastructure.

And this whole water issue has always been on the table for a long time. It's about time we get this thing done. And the Department needs all the help it can get. So I really hope that this Bill passes.

It's important for our people on Molokai to be able to become self sufficient and this can help lead to that. So I appreciate the effort and appreciate the Bill. Aloha.

Thank you. Is there anybody else in the room would like to testify? IT, is anybody on Zoom?

No one on zoom Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Excuse me, Chairman.

Yep, sure, by all means, come up. Director.

Good afternoon, Kali Watson for the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. See, I kind of miss on Senate Bill 2702. In our testimony, we kind of recommended. Amendment to delete section 2 and Section 4 of the Bill because it really doesn't require Department of Interior approval. That's the only comment I wanted to make on 2702.

Okay. We'll come back when we go into decision-making. May I ask you questions on that, Director? All right, so anything further in 2790? Seeing none. Any questions from our Committee? Okay, moving on. Senate Bill 2314. Language requires Hawaiian version of a law to be held binding.

The law in question was originally drafted in Hawaiian or if the law was originally drafted in English and if the law was subsequent, subsequently amended, codified, re-codified or reenacted in Hawaiian and meet certain criteria. First up to testify, Jung Min. On zoom.

Not present on Zoom Chair.

Ian Robertson, Deputy Attorney General. I am. I'm appearing for Charles Jun. Jun Ming. We submitted testimony submitting some. Some concerns about some of the language on the Bill. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. We are in receipt of those Concerns from attorney General. Okay, moving on. Johanna Chock-Tam in person.

I'm Johanna.

Yes, I'm on Zoom.

I'm Johanna Chock-Tam. But they did share and we standard. On our testimony and appreciate the support of Olelo Hawaii. Aloha.

Thank you. Moving on. We have five more in support. And we have Heather McVay on Zoom.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice chair, Members of the Committee, Heather McVay with the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission in support. And we suggested having it apply to or we suggested some language mentioning that it should be only for things that are materially amended.

So hopefully they'll Chair get a chance to take a look at that just to strengthen it further. Thank you kindly.

Okay, thank you. Is there anybody else in the room like to testify? Seeing none. Anybody else on Zoom? IT?

No one on Zoom Chair.

Okay. I don't think there's really any reason to adjourn to go in decision making. I'll clarify something. IT, let's recess.

Hi, this is the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs reconvening making decision on the first Measure, Senate Bill 2702. We are going to postpone decision making on this until February 5th at 1:05. Got a little bit more work to do and there's some amendments that we'd like to put in. Moving on to Senate Bill 2785 relating to economic development.

We're. It's a recommendation tariff passed as is Vice chair for the vote.

[Roll Call]

Thank you very much. Moving on to the next measure. Senate Bill 2790 relating to Department of Hawaiian Homes. Recommendation is to end this Molokai. This recommendation of the chair to pass as is vice chair for the vote. Chair votes Aye.

What Members were voting on SB2790. Recommendation of the chair is to pass unamended. Noting the presence of everyone here in the Committee. Anyone voting with reservations? Anyone voting no. All Members vote Aye Chair your condition is adopted.

Thank you. And final measure making decisions on Today's Senate Bill 2314 relating to Hawaiian language. It is the recommendation of the chair to adopt passing with amendments to adopt some of the language from the state judiciary. Specifically, English and Hawaiian are the official languages of Hawaii.

Whenever there is a difference between the English and Hawaiian versions of a law that is material to its interpretation, priority shall be given to the language that aligns with the intent of the Legislature as evidenced by legislative history, context and purpose.

Hawaiian shall not be required for public acts and transaction, but is welcome on Senate Bill 2314 passing with amendments. Chair votes Aye.

Members voting on SB 2314. Recommendation of the chair is to pass with amendments knowing the presence of all Members. Chair Anyone voting with reservations. Anyone voting no. All Members vote Aye. Chair your condition is adopted.

Thank you, Chair. At the end of the agenda. We are adjourned.