STAND. COM. REP. NO. 486

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1303

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Education and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 1303 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO APPROPRIATIONS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for new positions within the Department of Education, Agribusiness Development Corporation, and College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii System, Agribusiness Development Corporation, Hawaii Farm Bureau, and two individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that investment in education and agriculture are essential to meet Hawaii's sustainability and higher education goals.  Investment within the Department of Education, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, and Agribusiness Development Corporation represent an investment in a range of education and outreach programs that may lead to improved and expanded agricultural practices in Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees further find that this measure supplements the efforts of S.B. 376, Regular Session 2015, to establish and implement a farm to school program that supports school gardens, health and nutrition education, agriculture, and the procurement of locally grown foods for school meals and snacks.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1303 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Agriculture,

 

____________________________

RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair

 

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MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair