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Senate committees pass bill funding short-term response and staff for coconut rhinoceros beetle control
Summary
Senate joint committees approved House Bill 643, House Draft 2, to fund staffing and short-term management for the coconut rhinoceros beetle response while planning a high-biosecurity testing facility and mobile units to support biocontrol research and virus rearing.
The Senate Committee on Higher Education and the Senate Committee on Agriculture and the Environment on Monday approved House Bill 643, House Draft 2, to appropriate funds for short-term management and staffing for the coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) response program.
The bill would fund technicians and graduate students to support biocontrol research while the state continues planning for a mobile and longer-term biosecure facility needed to rear and test viral and fungal control agents. Sharon Heard, Director, Department of Agriculture, told the committee the department awarded a planning contract and is evaluating a site in Wahiawa; she said the initial planning used about $400,000 of a previously appropriated $600,000…
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