First the good news. Our recent meeting with the Kauai legislative team was very productive. All four elected officials were present as we discussed HCR 203 and shared a myriad of concerns with them. Mahalo to District 15 Rep. Jimmy Tokioka and his staff for helping to coordinate the meeting. District 14 Rep. Mina Morita along with District 16 Rep. Dee Morikawa and State Senator Ron Kouchi attended with some of our regulars and a few new faces. After wards we submitted a request that they consider reintroducing SB 463. Mahalo to everyone in attendance for your participation.
Yes, this is still part of the good news, but it gets better. HB 1387 was introduced by Reps. Morita and Morikawa. A simple request for the Department of Agriculture (DOA) to publish an annual report on pesticide use in the State including investigations of health complaints by the Department of Health. In addition it will requires users of pesticides to report usage to DOA and allows DOA to impose a fee to recover costs.
The issue of pesticide use in our community is of great importance. This simple request for our government to monitor the safety and well being of our community may be opposed by pesticide users but most reasonable people would agree that we have to start looking at this closely and determine what are the concerns and how do we address them. This bill is a good starting point and helps us all understand how far reaching the issue is.
Testimony can be sent via the internet or can be e.mailed to repmorita@Capitol.hawaii.gov
Include the bill number and the committee in the subject line. The bill is being heard in the Energy and Environmental Protection (EEP) committee and may scheduled for a hearing next week. Hopefully we can move this bill out of committee with out any significant changes and usher it forward to being signed into law.
I'll skip the bad news for now and just say mahalo to all the bee lovers out there who understand the connection between healthy bees and a healthy environment. Have a beautiful day and bee well : )
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment