STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3547

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1736

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1736, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE KONA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to rename the Kona International Airport at Keahole as the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole.

 

     Your Committee recognizes that Ellison Onizuka, best known as Hawaii's first astronaut, was born on the Island of Hawaii.  He served in the United States Air Force, where he used his education in aerospace engineering to participate in flight test programs and systems safety engineering for numerous aircraft.  In January 1978, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration selected him as an astronaut candidate, and he became the first Japanese-American to venture into space.  Tragically, on January 28, 1986, he and six other individuals perished when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

 

     Your Committee believes that renaming the Kona International Airport at Keahole as the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole is a fitting tribute that will honor the legacy and memory of a beloved and respected keiki o ka aina.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date from July 1, 2018, to January 1, 2017.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1736, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1736, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair