STAND. COM. REP. NO.421

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 505

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy and Environment and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 505 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE EMERGENCY ENVIRONMENTAL WORKFORCE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to continue the efforts of the emergency environmental workforce program to improve the State's economy by employing citizens to protect the environment.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Board of Agriculture, County Council of Maui, Maui County Mayor, Sierra Club, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Maui Invasive Species Committee, Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, and The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii. The Board of Land and Natural Resources submitted testimony in support of the overall concept of this measure.

Your Committees find that the Emergency Environmental Workforce Program both creates important job opportunities in trying economic times and has substantively advanced our state and county alien invasive species eradication efforts. Your Committees believe the Program should be continued to address the ongoing threat that aggressive invasive species pose to our natural environment, our economy, and the health and well-being of our community and visitors alike.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Environment and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 505 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Environment and Labor,

____________________________

BRIAN KANNO, Chair

____________________________

J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair