STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1162

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2011

 

RE:   S.B. No. 169

      S.D. 2

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Transportation and Public Safety & Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 169, S.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CARGO INSPECTIONS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to increase public safety by authorizing the establishment of a pilot program using dogs to inspect incoming cargo shipments after arrival at the State's harbors for illegal fireworks and explosives.

 

     The State Fire Council, Honolulu Fire Department, Kauai Fire Department, and Department of Fire and Public Safety of the County of Maui supported the intent of this bill.  The Department of Transportation provided comments.

 

     As an island State Hawaii receives approximately 98 percent of its goods via water borne transportation that enter our commercial harbors each year.  While a majority of shipping cargo containers from international ports are inspected, only a small fraction of the more than 200,000 domestic shipping cargo containers that arrive in Hawaii each year from the continental United States are inspected by government agencies.  Shipping companies conduct random checks of less than five per cent of incoming cargo containers, and these inspections are mainly conducted to ensure that senders of cargo have been properly charged.  This lack of sufficient cargo inspections means that there is ample opportunity for illegal fireworks and explosives to be smuggled into the State.

 

     However, your Committees find that while insufficient cargo inspections at the harbors provide opportunities for illegal fireworks and explosives to be smuggled into the State, any efforts to increase inspections need to be carefully crafted to avoid delays and inefficiencies in harbor operations that may impede commerce.  The use of dogs to quickly inspect cargo at the harbors offers one potential solution.

 

     Your Committees have amended this bill by:

 

     (1)  Changing its effective date to July 1, 2011;

 

     (2)  Deleting the sunset date for the pilot program; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Public Safety & Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 169, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 169, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Public Safety & Military Affairs,

 

 

____________________________

HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSEPH M. SOUKI, Chair