House Bill 1406, HD1, relating to government procedures and creation of a permitting-task force passed the committees after chairs and members agreed to amendments expanding membership and incorporating agency suggestions.

Monique Schaeffer of the Hawaii State Energy Office testified that HSEO’s statutory duties and recent executive actions make it an important participant on the task force; the chairs accepted HSEO’s requested language to include the office among invitees or members. Committees also decided to add a Senate representative to the task force, to be appointed by the Senate president.

Chairs said they would include a reference in the committee report noting that earlier versions of the bill requested a $120,000 appropriation for staffing and administrative costs; staff will add that note rather than formally appropriating funds in the bill. The committees adopted technical edits, added a clean effective date (on approval), and passed HB 1406, HD1, with amendments.

The chairs recorded their amendments in the committee report; no final staffing appropriation was enacted during the hearing.