SUPPORT HB299: HISC Invasive Species Funding
/The Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council (HISC) and its county-based invasive species committees play a critical and indispensable role in our fight against invasive species. Administratively attached to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, HISC develops plans, funds projects, coordinates cross-agency efforts, and provides critical support for the Big Island, Maui, Molokaʻi, Oʻahu, and Kauaʻi Invasive Species Committees. These latter county-level committees in turn lead on-the-ground efforts to eradicate and manage pests in our forests, open spaces, and neighborhoods, including through the education, training, and enlistment of community groups and local businesses in our all-hands-on-deck biosecurity efforts.
Despite extremely limited resources, HISC and its invasive species committees have successfully eradicated dozens of outbreaks of invasive pests throughout the islands - preventing millions of dollars’ worth of damages and the irreversible degradation of our islands’ environmental and cultural integrity, and our quality of life. They also continue to work tirelessly to help manage established pests and mitigate the impacts they have on our communities and landscapes.
The Department of Agriculture, in contrast, continues to demonstrate an inability or unwillingness to fulfill its critical and exclusive regulatory responsibilities, even after receiving “historic” funding last year that remains largely unspent.
While we continue to push for the Department of Agriculture to embrace its biosecurity role, it is clear that increased funding for HISC and its committees may be the best investment we can make to safeguard our islands and future generations from a pest-infested landscape.
A bill to fund HISC, HB299, is up for a hearing on Thursday, January 30, at 9am in the House Committee on Water & Land (Room 411). Notably, the proposed $4.25M is $1.5M less than what HISC received last year. Please take a moment to submit testimony to SUPPORT WITH AMENDMENTS HB299, urging lawmakers to increase, and not decrease, funding for HISC and its essential work in protecting Hawaiʻi from invasive pests. You can also watch the hearing live here.
What the bills does
HB299 would appropriate $4.25M each year for the next two years for HISC - $1.5M less than what the legislature provided it last year.
Why is this good but needs amendments
HB299 recognizes that HISC serves as a critical foundation of our invasive species response, eradication, and management framework, and that there is a substantial need to provide it and its island invasive species committees with more funding to bolster our biosecurity framework. However, it appropriates less funds than was provided to HISC last year.
Sample testimony
Aloha Chair Kahaloa, Vice-Chair Kusch, and members of the House Agriculture & Food Systems Committee,
My name is [Your name] and I SUPPORT WITH AMENDMENTS HB299.
I strongly agree with the opening section of this bill, regarding the need to increase funding for the Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council (HISC) and the island Invasive Species Committees that have been the core foundation of our all-hands-on-deck fight to protect our islands and future generations from invasive species. However, this bill appears to provide HISC with far less funds than it received last year - $3M over the next fiscal biennium - in a moment when we clearly need to invest more than ever before in shoring up our biosecurity defenses. Please amend this measure to increase, rather than decrease, the funding that will be provided to HISC.
With dozens of successful eradications from Kauaʻi to Hawaiʻi Island of pests and noxious weeds ranging from fireweed to pampas grass to little fire ants, HISC and its Committees have proven their great effectiveness in fighting invasive species with extremely limited resources. Their work has undoubtedly prevented millions upon millions of dollars’ worth of damages and the potentially irreversible degradation of our islands’ environmental and cultural integrity, and our quality of life. Meanwhile, they continue to serve as an integral foundation of community-driven efforts to detect, eradicate, and manage myriad invasive species across our islands.
With the Department of Agriculture struggling to expend the historic funding it received last year for biosecurity programs, and with no clear Department of Agriculture plan to fulfill its own unique roles in preventing the introduction and spread of invasive pests, it is absolutely critical that we double down in our investments in HISC and its Committees.
I urge you to PASS HB299 with AMENDMENTS to increase, and not decrease, HISC funding for the next fiscal biennium, sufficient to fully meet its core needs and anticipated programmatic requests.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Testimony instructions
Register for a capitol website account if you haven’t yet (youʻll need to confirm your registration by responding to an automated email)
Sign in to capitol.hawaii.gov with your registration information and click the "Submit Testimony" button.
Enter "HB299" where it says "Enter Bill or Measure."
Input your information and your written testimony, select your testimony option(s)—in-person + written, remotely + written, written only. Please consider providing verbal testimony (in-person or remotely) if you are able!
*Note: Virtual testimony option may be disabled 24 hours before the hearing.
If you are testifying via Zoom, be sure to review these instructions (page 4)