State lawmakers are likely to push for more biosecurity-related measures during the upcoming Legislative session.
During this year’s session, lawmakers passed a law allocating $20 million in state funding for biosecurity efforts in Hawaiʻi. Gov. Josh Green later cut that funding in half in a line-item veto, but advocates for the measure still celebrated the state’s support for managing invasive species.
At last month’s Hawaiʻi Agriculture Conference, Rep. Kristin Kahaloa, who was the vice chair for the House Committee on Agriculture and Food Systems, said she and other lawmakers will look to build on that momentum.
“We're getting closer. We're not there yet. We need the community to make all of my peers and the governor believe that — besides housing, besides cost of living — that protecting our natural resources via biosecurity is important,” she said.
One focus for Kahaloa is an omnibus biosecurity bill that would essentially look to tweak all the state laws related to biosecurity. She said during the conference it will be a comprehensive measure meant to strengthen the state’s biosecurity laws.
She also wants funding for a public campaign in biosecurity to get the public more aware of the invasive species and their impacts to the state, as well as efforts to manage them.
Funding for public awareness was cut when Green slashed $10 million from the biosecurity bill this year.
“Part of those areas cut were funding for public awareness to get more people to understand, to be educated — all of that was cut to zero. So we're going to try to put it back in. We need an army,” Kahaloa said.
Invasive species management became a more pressing issue to lawmakers during the last legislative session. The spread of some of the most problematic species in Hawaiʻi, including the coconut rhinoceros beetle, little fire ant and coqui frog, over the last few years, likely motivated state lawmakers to support biosecurity measures.
