The House Committee on Higher Education on March 14, 2025, voted to pass Senate Bill 1502 SD1 with amendments and forward it to the Finance Committee. The bill appropriates funds to establish faculty positions, student programs and facilities at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and UH West Oahu for workforce development in the defense sector.

University representatives described a multi-campus initiative supported by the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii and the Pacific Intelligence Innovation Initiative that aims to prepare Hawaii residents for intelligence, cybersecurity and other defense-related jobs. Wei Zhang, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the College of Social Sciences at UH Manoa, and Jairus Grove, program director, said the project focuses on recruiting students statewide, offering summer college credit and internships that help students obtain security clearances and placement in sponsored positions.

Supporters testifying in favor included the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii and Manoa faculty involved in the program. One in-room opponent, Emily Sarasa, testified against the bill, saying she opposed further expansion of military-related pipelines and favored funding other graduate programs or investments in infrastructure and local economic priorities.

The chair said the HD 1 will blank out appropriations and FTE counts in sections 2 and 4 and reference the position counts in the committee report for Finance consideration. The chair noted the bill as introduced contained roughly $900,000 in appropriations but the HD 1 would leave funding blank for Finance to consider.

Vote (committee roll call): Chair Garrett (aye), Vice Chair Amato (aye), Representative Evslin (aye), Representative Coppella (aye), Representative Keeler (aye), Representative LaChica (excused), Representative Olds (excused), Representative Sayama (aye), Representative Woodson (excused), Representative Murioka (aye), Representative Souza (aye). Tally: 8 yes, 0 no, 0 abstain, 3 excused. The transcript shows the chair’s recommendation to pass with amendments, which was adopted by the committee and the measure will go to the Finance Committee for budget consideration.