STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3188

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.C.R. No. 143

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 143 entitled:

 

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ADOPT FEDERAL POLICY TO PROHIBIT THE INTRODUCTION OF NON-NATIVE SPECIES, AND TO MANAGE AND PREVENT THE UNCONTROLLED PROLIFERATION OF INVASIVE SPECIES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the federal government to adopt federal policy to prohibit the introduction of non-native species, and to manage and prevent the uncontrolled proliferation of invasive species.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and two individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Sportsmen Alliance, Big Island Fisheries Alliance, Good Shepard Foundation, and three individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

 

     Your Committees find that the proliferation of certain invasive species inflicts irreparable damage to native habitats, native ecosystems, and native species.  States, organizations, agencies, and individuals are allowed to import invasive species under different state laws, with conflicting levels of permitting, monitoring, protection, management, and enforcement.  Furthermore, the federal government has no single policy prohibiting or limiting the import and keeping of invasive species in the United States.  The management and control of import and proliferation of invasive species would benefit from application of federal guidelines, standards, regulations, and oversight.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Replacing the word "non-native" with the word "invasive" throughout the measure;

 

     (2)  Amending the title of the measure to read, "URGING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ADOPT FEDERAL POLICY TO PROHIBIT THE INTRODUCTION OF INVASIVE SPECIES, AND TO MANAGE AND PREVENT THE UNCONTROLLED PROLIFERATION OF INVASIVE SPECIES"; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 143, as amended herein, and recommend its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 143, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs and Energy and Environment,

 

____________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair