House Standing Committee on Economic Development & Technology

Okay. Good morning. We're at ECD, Room 423 at 9:30 a.m. It is April 8th, 2026. Okay. Because morning hearings must adjourn prior to floor session, not all testifiers may have the opportunity to testify. In that event, please know that your recent testimony will be considered by the committee. For those on Zoom, please keep yourself muted and video off while waiting to testify and after your testimony is complete. The Zoom chat function will allow you to chat with the technical staff only.

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In that case, an appropriate notice will be posted. Please avoid using any trademarked or copyrighted images. Please refrain from profanity or uncivil behavior. Such behavior may be grounds for removal from the hearing without the ability to rejoin. We're joined this morning with Representative Templo, Chair Ilagan, Representative Tam, and myself. Okay.

Okay. We're starting with HCR 55 HD 1 and HR 51 HD 1. Would anyone like to testify on this measure? Okay. We have two in support and one in support on the HR. Any questions from the committee? Discussion? Okay. Moving to the next measure. The next measure is HCR 144 and HR 136.

This measure, we have 11 in support, one with comments, and for the HR version, we have six in support, no opposition, no comments. Would anyone like to testify on this measure? Okay. Please introduce yourself.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, committee members. My name is Chase Silver. I'm with the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities. I believe we had put in our written testimony that we were requesting some amendments. We understand that this is the second committee.

It may not be possible to do amendments. Our recommendations, we're essentially just trying to include the AFN population, access and functional needs, and disabilities in the intent of the framework that's gonna be developed in this resolution. So if that could be in the committee report or just reflected so it's accounted for, that'd be appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further testimony? Okay. All right. Any questions from the committee?

We'll move, then, to HCR 8, HR 7. For this measure, we have four in support, and for the HR version, two in support. Would anyone like to testify on these resolutions? Okay.

Any questions? Comments? Okay. Moving to the next measure, HCR 10/HR 12. For this, we have four in support, one in opposition, no comments, and for the HR, four in support, none with opposition or comments.

Would anyone like to testify on these measures? Questions or comments? Okay. Move to the next one: HCR 33/HR 33. For this, we have 20 in support on the HCR, eight with support in the HR version. Would anyone like to testify on these measures? Any questions or comments from the committee? Okay. HCR 185/HR 175.

For this measure, we have two in support. Would anyone like to testify?

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, and committee members. I'm Chris Caulfield. Today I'm speaking to you as president of IMUA Alliance. We're a gender-- we're a service provider for survivors of sexual exploitation and gender violence in Hawaii. We do a lot of work with migrant survivors of exploitation, which is why we're very interested in immigration protections of all kinds.

Trafficking survivors are particularly vulnerable to heightened immigration enforcement practices when immigration enforcement practices are heightened. We see fewer reports of exploitation, fewer efforts to seek protective orders, less access to emergency shelter or medical care because people fear detention will lead to deportation.

We would note that in 2026, there was a-- this year in February, there was a memo that was released about ICE's $38 billion plan to expand detention center capacity nationwide. There were 104 new detention centers that were created in 2025. There have already been 24 in 2026 with 6 to 10 more that are already under consideration.

Many of these are very large-scale. There was one in Pennsylvania that was over 500,000 square feet with a 7,500 person capacity. Most of them are in the 1,000 to 1,500 person capacity. They-- we would not be by any means the first state to take action in order to try to prevent this from happening.

New Mexico enacted a law prohibiting both private and public facilities from entering into contracts with ICE to detain migrants, Illinois acted a similar statewide ban, New Mexico recently passed legislation banning local governments from contracting with ICE for immigration detention. Even some municipalities like Seattle have taken action on this to enact moratoriums on new detention facilities.

So, limiting purchase and deployment to development of new facilities, we see as a matter of public safety, community stability, and something that will really help our survivors, and we just wanna say that, you know, this resolution sends an important message that our resources for our state should be reserved for the public trust and not for the propagation of fear. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. Any further testimony? Okay. Any questions or comments from our committee? Okay. So that's-- okay. Thank you. Now we're gonna move to our last item, HCR 116/HR 108.

Okay. We have four in support. Would you like to testify?

Morning, chair, vice chair, members of the committee. Jun Yang with the Statewide Office on Housing Homelessness and Housing Solutions. Just stand in- in support of the written testimony. I'm here for any questions.

Okay. Thank you. Would any and will else else like to testify in this measure? 'Kay. Any questions? No. Comments? 'Kay.

Actually, I do have. Could you- Could you just let us know what's what's happening with the coordinated plan for just around the capital and Chinatown, this area?

So some of the work that we've had, what we've done for specifically for the the capital area, we have an outreach contract that we so there's there's two outreach contracts right now. One specifically through the Department of Human Services that is a statewide contract and island wide one that has split the two parts of the island into two major outreach teams. That's run out of the office the homeless programs office out of DHS.

And so I don't oversee, but we work very closely, very, you know, partner very well. So IHS is the outreach teams that come out for this area.

We recently just had a point in time count at the January. We hope to hear something back in the next couple of months. And then there's a a separate out- outreach contract that I have out of my office is specifically targeted to support working with encampments and and so I've had the opportunity to deploy this team out to work with out the established outreach organizations to find ways to get people into shelter a lot faster.

And so we've had some pretty good success with this team, not only for the capital areas, but specific target- targeted areas. But what we can do is we can make sure that we're looking at just a specific capital area and find ways to, work with the the building staff here for sure.

Has the point of- Has the count increased or decreased?

So, I don't know that number yet, and I can come back to you. But when the- once the report comes back, I don't I actually don't have a a sense of where we're at and hoping that all the efforts have have seen some changes, but we we do know what the economic situation has been.

Is that report the whole entire state or is it just a wobble?

So it is a report that is actually the entire state run by each of their, what is called the continuum of cares. So Oahu's continuum of care is the partners in care, a group of nonprofits that work together, service providers all throughout this island.

So you can break it down in districts then?

We do- We do.

Would you when you get the count, could you provide us the information of all our district and this committee?

Sure. Absolutely.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any further questions? Okay. We're going to recess.

Okay. We are back from recess, and we're gonna do decision-making for these measures. Recommendation for the first measure, which is--yeah--HCR 55/HR 51, recommendation is to defer. For the second measure, we are going to-- I don't know if it's in front of me. Thank you.

Thank you. That's HCR 144/HR 136. Recommendation is to adopt the amendments recommended by the Disability Council. Any questions? Discussion? Chair for the vote.

Thank you, Chair. The Chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments for HCR 144 and HR 135.

136.

136. Can't read my own handwriting. Chair votes aye. Vice Chair votes aye. [Roll call]. And we have Representative Gedeon excused for the remainder of the hearing. Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Thank you.

So for the next measure, measure HCR 8, HR 7, recommendation is to pass as is. Any discussion? Thank you. Chair for the vote.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 8 and HR 7 as is. Any votes? Any no's? Any reservations? With all votes, ayes.

Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Okay. Next measure is HCR 10/HR 12. Recommendation's to pass as is. Chair for the vote.

No questions?

Any questions? No questions.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 10 and HR 12 as is. Any votes-- any no votes? Any reservations? With all votes ayes, Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Okay. Next measure is HCR 33/HR 33. Our recommendation is to pass this as is. Any discussion? Chair.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 33 and HR 33 as is. Any no votes? Any reservations? With all votes aye, Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

adopted. Thank you. HCR 185, HR 175, recommendation to pass as is. Any discussion? Thank you. Chair for the vote.

With HCR 185 and HR 175, Chair's recommendation is to pass as is. Any no votes, any reservations? With all votes, aye. Chair, your resolution has been adopted. Thank you.

'Kay. Now we're at the last measure, HCR 116, HR 108, recommendations to pass as is. Any discussion? Chair.

Chair's recommendation is to pass HCR 116 and HR 108 as is. Any no votes? Any reservations? With all votes, aye, Chair, your resolution has been adopted.

Thank you. We're adjourned.