At a Jan. 17 joint information briefing convened by the House Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems and the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Environment, Hawaii Department of Agriculture officials and the Hawaii Invasive Species Council described plans for expanded biosecurity spending, and lawmakers raised sharp questions about how Act 231 funds are being encumbered and used to address little fire ant infestations.

The issue matters because the state released a major pool of biosecurity funding under Act 231 and the executive budget sought an additional $4.25 million for the Hawaii Invasive Species Council (HISC); committee members said they are concerned that slow hiring, contract design, and procurement decisions could leave money unspent while pests spread.

Department of Agriculture Director Sharon Hurd and HISC program support Chelsea Arnott outlined how recent rule changes and new contracts are intended to strengthen prevention and response. Hurd said the department has authority under revised Hawaii Administrative Rules 4-70-2 to stop movement of coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) host material, effective Jan. 20. Hurd also told the committees that “65% of the funding has been obligated, 52% has been encumbered,” and that 44 positions authorized by Act 231 remain unfilled because job classifications and recruitment are still underway.

But legislators pressed the department over discrepancies between that accounting and information from the state comptroller. Senator Laura Keohokalole cited an email from the Department of Accounting and General Services showing $1.1 million encumbered to date and no expenditures, and asked whether the department might lapse most Act 231 funding on June 30 if encumbrances are not finalized. Hurd responded that program terms—“encumbered, obligated, expended”—are distinct and said contracts are in process with the comptroller’s office.

The meeting also focused on a controversial procurement to treat little fire ant. Hurd and Greg Takashima, pesticides program manager with HDOA, said the department awarded a contract to a structural pest-control company to treat residential properties: they identified a minimum of 580 Oahu residences and 290 Hawaii Island residences as contract targets and said an additional $400,000 was reserved for partnership work with nurseries and training. Hurd and Takashima said the department selected a licensed pest-control operator for liability, capacity and insurance reasons and because commercial operators can scale up quickly.

Representative Lisa Martin and other legislators pushed back, saying the contract excluded the Hawaii Ant Lab (HAL) from bidding and that HAL has technical expertise, community ties and lower-cost operations. “I have some real concerns that Terminix was the entity awarded,” Rep. Martin said, adding that HAL has trained private pest-control companies and that HAL’s field protocols are widely used. Chelsea Arnott described HAL’s role as an expert trainer and said HAL currently has limited staff on Oahu (approximately 1.5 equivalent staff on Oahu) and that HAL’s statewide program runs about $1.3 million a year for roughly 16 staff.

Hurd and other department staff said the contract’s scope was vetted by procurement and that the contract is routed through DAGS. The department acknowledged that one earlier RFP (for green-waste hauling) had to be reissued after a drafting error about loading costs; Hurd said that corrected solicitations will be published soon.

Committee members asked how residential treatment sites were prioritized. Hurd described a selection process that relies on reported detections, referrals and survey dots the department has collected; she said Terminix will be provided lists of target properties and that the state’s quarantine branch will work with contractors on deployment strategy. Some legislators urged a more explicit equity or needs-based prioritization (for example income, public-health risk, or potential to stop spread) rather than leaving selection to the contractor.

What’s next: Department of Agriculture officials said many contracts are in DAGS review and that they expect to have more encumbrances in hand within weeks; lawmakers said they will continue to press the department for a detailed, auditable accounting of encumbrances and for assurances that community experts such as the Hawaii Ant Lab are meaningfully involved in training and oversight.