STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3448

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2329

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 2329, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HISTORIC PRESERVATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Require the Department of Land and Natural Resources to place historical markers in the State to indicate significant sites in the life of President Barack Obama, as identified by the Department in consultation with the Hawaii Tourism Authority and State Foundation on Culture and the Arts; and

 

     (2)  Appropriate funds for this purpose.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii Tourism Authority, and Hawaii NAACP.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance, State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and Society for Hawaiian Archaeology.

 

     Your Committee finds that President Barack Obama, who served as the forty-fourth President of the United States of America from 2009 to 2017, was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii.  After residing in other places such as Washington state and Indonesia, President Obama returned to Honolulu in 1971 to live with his maternal grandparents, and thereafter attended Punahou School with the aid of a scholarship from fifth grade until he graduated from high school in 1979.  In an essay for the Punahou Bulletin published in 1999, President Obama wrote of his years in Honolulu as follows:  "The opportunity that Hawaii offered — to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect — became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."  Your Committee finds that it is important and appropriate that the State of Hawaii celebrate and commemorate the first President of the United States of America to be born in Hawaii, by placing historical markers at sites that were significant to him during his early childhood.

 

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Clarifying that:

 

          (A)  If the location identified for a historical marker is on private property or is used as a private residence, the historical marker shall be placed on the property only if the owner of the property agrees to have the marker placed at the location; and

 

          (B)  If the owner of the property does not agree to have a marker placed on the owner's property, the marker shall be placed on a public property in close proximity to that location;

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2329, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2329, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts,

 

 

 

________________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair