STAND. COM. REP. NO. 79-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 2000

                                 RE: H.B. No. 2717
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs, to
which was referred H.B. No. 2717 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TERRORISM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to provide for protections and
penalties for the threat of and the use of weapons of mass
destruction.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Department of Public Safety and the Department of
Health.  Both testifiers also proposed amendments.

     Your Committee finds that our state needs to be prepared to
prosecute those who threaten to, or, in fact, actually do carry
out acts of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction.
Further, the possession, and manufacturing of these weapons needs
also to be properly addressed.

     Your Committee has amended this bill to incorporate the
advice of the Department of Public Safety by changing the
reference to "law enforcement officers" to the more broad
"authorized first responders."  This amendment addresses the fact
that often law enforcement officers would not be the first to
encounter restricted agents such as those covered in the bill.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs that is attached

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 79-00
                                 Page 2

 
to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and
purpose of H.B. No. 2717, as amended herein, and recommends that
it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No.
2717, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and
Hawaiian Affairs.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Public Safety and
                                   Military Affairs,



                                   ______________________________
                                   NESTOR R. GARCIA, Chair