The Senate Committee on Labor and Technology on April 4 advised and consented to the gubernatorial nomination of Barbara Krieg to the Hawaii Retirement Savings Board for a term ending June 30, 2029.

Krieg, who told the committee she has served on the Hawaii Retirement Savings Program Board of Trustees for the past two years, emphasized that an auto-enroll program with an opt-out provision would make the initiative more effective and affordable for Hawaii. She said the design would increase participation and make the state more likely to join a multistate compact that shares administration and investment infrastructure.

The nomination matters because the structure of the state retirement-savings program will shape how quickly workers can begin accumulating retirement assets and how much it costs to operate the program. Krieg argued that opt-out enrollment — commonly called automatic enrollment — is the “gold standard” for getting dollars into retirement accounts more quickly than opt-in designs, and that Hawaii’s small market size makes economies of scale especially important.

Krieg told the committee she previously served as the state’s human resources director from February 2011 to February 2014 and that she expects, if reappointed, to help operationalize the program within four years. “Within the next four years, I guarantee you we would have an operationalized, fully operating, robust retirement savings program with tens of thousands of participants and many hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings,” Krieg said.

When a senator asked specifically about Senate Bill 855, Krieg said an opt-out approach makes it easier for Hawaii to participate in interstate compacts that share administrators and investment options, lowering operating costs. She said an opt-in program risks leaving Hawaii an outlier that could be excluded from compacts or face higher administrative expenses if it must run a stand-alone program.

The committee voted to adopt the recommendation to advise and consent; Chair Aquino and Vice Chair Lee recorded aye votes, and Senators Ihara, Moriwaki and Fevella also voted aye. The committee issued a formal recommendation of advise and consent and congratulated the nominee.

Krieg’s written resume and testimony were submitted to the committee and are part of the record; public testimony in support was noted by staff during the hearing. No amendments or conditions were attached to the committee’s recommendation.