Senate Ways and Means Committee to tour Maui and Molokaʻi facilities

The Senate Ways and Means Committee will visit Maui on Wednesday into Thursday, July 26-27, and Molokaʻi on Thursday and Friday, July 27-28, 2023.

While on Maui, the Senate Ways and Means Committee will visit Kahului Airport, Maui Nui Venison, Kahului Civic Center, University of Hawaiʻi Maui College, and Maui utility sites. The visits will be made in conjunction with the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaiʻi State Energy Office and the Public Utilities Commission. 

This Maui visit will include presentations highlighting a need for inter-modality in airports, harbors, and highways, master plan improvements to facilitate regional economic development mobility plan and neighbor island connectivity, and Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement personnel expansion. 

On Thursday, July 27, The Senate Ways and Means Committee will visit the Haggai Institute and Kūlanihākoʻi High School. These site visits will be held in partnership with the Department of Education, County of Maui, and the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. During the stop at Kūlanihākoʻi HS, the committee will be joined by the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to discuss the vision and future of Kahoʻolawe upon its transfer to a US and State-recognized Sovereign Entity.  

Section 6K-9, Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes states, “Upon its return to the State, the resources and waters of Kaho‘olawe shall be held in trust as part of the public land trust; provided that the State shall transfer management and control of the island and its waters to the sovereign native Hawaiian entity upon its recognition by the United States and the State of Hawaii. All terms, conditions, agreements, and laws affecting the island, including any ongoing obligations relating to the clean-up of the island and its waters, shall remain in effect unless expressly terminated.” 

On Thursday and Friday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee will visit Molokaʻi Airport, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands homesteads in Hoʻolehua, and Kalaupapa. 

These visits will be a culmination of presentations and oversights of continued improvement projects in partnership with the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Department of Education and DHHL.