STAND. COM. REP. NO. I
Honolulu, Hawaii
APR 0 2 2025
RE: S.C.R. No. 150
S. D. 1
Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi
President of the Senate
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts, to
which was referred S.C.R. No. 150 entitled:
"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION TO CONVENE A WORKING GROUP TO DEVELOP AND
RECOMMEND FEDERAL, STATE, AND COUNTY PROGRAMS SUBSIDIZING THE
TRANSPORT OF WATERBORNE CARGO,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the
Department of Transportation to convene a working group to develop
and recommend federal, state, and county programs subsidizing the
transport of waterborne cargo.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Department of Transportation, Young Brothers Hawaii, and
Hawaii Food Industry Association.
Your Committee finds that a Water Carrier Working Group,
established by the Legislature in 2020, concluded that communities
are largely reliant on the import of goods, with more than eighty
percent of goods reaching customers having been imported. Your
Committee further finds that unlike other communities in the
continental United States that have alternative means of
transporting goods by freight and rail, the geography of the State
necessitates the employment of water carriers to transport goods.
The Water Carrier Working Group report recommended that the
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funding required to subsidize general cargo transport be sourced
from existing or newly created federal, state, and county
government programs. Therefore, this measure requests the
Department of Transportation to convene a working group to develop
and recommend federal, state, and county subsidies for the
transport of waterborne cargo which will help make the State more
food secure and resilient, and promote local food production and
other forms of local manufacturing, by making interisland shipping
more cost effective.
Your Committee has amended this measure by making a
technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity
and consistency.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts that is
attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent
and purpose of S.C.R. No. 150, as amended herein, and recommends
its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 150,
S.D. 1.
Respectfully submitted on
behalf of the members of the
Committee on Transportation and
Culture and the Arts,
CHRIS LEE, Chair
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 The Senate
Thirty-Third Legislature
State of Hawai‘i
Record of Votes
Committee on Transportation and Cuiture and the Arts
TCA
Bill / Resolution No.:* Committee Referral: Date:
TCA
The Committee is reconsidering its previous decision on this measure.
If so. then the previous decision was to:__________________________
The Recommendation is:
Pass, unamended Pass, \A/ith amendments Hold __ Recommit
2312 2311 2310 2313
Members Ay^ Aye (WR) Nay Excused
LEE. Chris (C)
INOUYE, Lorraine R. (VC)
ELEFANTE, Brandon J.C.
KANUHA, Dru Mamo
DECORTE, Samantha
TOTAL
Recommendation:
Adopted __ Not Adopted
Chair’s or Designee’s Signature:
7 Y*/ow Pink
Distribution: Original Goldenrod
File with Committee Re port Clerk s Office Drafting Agency Committee File Copy
*Only one measure per Record of Votes
Revised: 12/09/24