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Committees approve authority for HDOA to enforce federal quarantines under cooperative agreements
Summary
SB330 SD1 passed with amendments to allow the Hawaii Department of Agriculture to enforce certain USDA quarantines under memoranda of understanding; CGAPS and HDOA supported technical clarifications to definitions and enforcement scope.
The Legislature’s Agriculture, Energy and Economic Development committees approved SB330 SD1 on March 19 to authorize the Hawaii Department of Agriculture to enforce quarantines issued by the United States Department of Agriculture under cooperative agreements.
Jonathan Ho of HDOA said the department stands on its written testimony with comments and noted that while the federal government already issues quarantines, the state often assists or partners with USDA; the bill would provide statutory authority to enter cooperative agreements for enforcement.
The Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species (CGAPS) urged two technical amendments: broaden the definition of “article” to include pests and noxious weeds and align state definitions with the federal Plant Protection Act to ensure HDOA could enforce the full scope of federal quarantines. CGAPS noted the measure is important to protect crops such as citrus from threats like citrus greening and referenced a recent federal quarantine expansion.
Committee leaders said they would accept HDOA’s suggested drafting approach that removes duplicative federal statutory text from the bill and rely on cooperative agreements and MOUs with USDA for operational details. The committees also agreed to take CGAPS’ recommended clarifying edits.
The committees voted to pass SB330 SD1 with the agreed amendments, defected the effective date to July 1, 3000 (a drafting placeholder) and instructed drafting staff to implement the technical clarifications. Committee chairs said the changes create a clearer statutory basis for HDOA to work with USDA on enforcement while avoiding duplication of federal law.
