HB 2490 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO COASTAL RESILIENCE.

Summary

Establishes a five-year Coastal Resilience Pilot Program within the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism for the preservation of Mantokuji Bay. Allows the pilot program to be exempt from certain regulatory requirements. Requires the State Historic Preservation Division to conduct a streamlined historic preservation review. Establishes certain procedures for the discovery of Native Hawaiian skeletal remains. Requires annual reports to the Legislature. Sunsets 6/30/2031. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD2)

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Mar 2026

House Passage

Mar 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 28, 2026 Last action Mar 20, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB2490_HD1 → HB2490_HD2 · 6 edits

MODERATE

This bill revision significantly expands the scope of the coastal resilience pilot program by adding specific procedures for handling Native Hawaiian skeletal remains and clarifying the treatment of burials at the Mantokuji Soto Zen Mission cemetery. It introduces new requirements for immediate work stoppages, descendant consultation, and burial treatment plans, while simultaneously removing previous mandates for archaeological monitoring and inadvertent discovery protocols. These changes aim to balance regional coastal protection with stricter cultural sensitivity and legal compliance regarding Native Hawaiian remains.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded from general coastal resilience measures to explicitly include detailed protocols for the discovery and management of Native Hawaiian skeletal remains and specific cemetery burials.

REQUIREMENT

Added new subsections requiring immediate cessation of ground-disturbing activities and notification within 24 hours upon discovery of Native Hawaiian skeletal remains.

Added requirements for applicants to conduct good-faith efforts to identify lineal and cultural descendants and for the island burial council to determine whether remains should be preserved in place or relocated.

Removed previous requirements for an archaeological literature review, an archaeological monitoring plan with a qualified archaeologist, and an inadvertent discovery protocol for general cultural artifacts.

Added a requirement that all costs associated with archaeological documentation, descendant consultation, and burial treatment plans must be borne by the applicant.

DEFINITION

Added definitions for 'Applicant' and 'Island burial council' to clarify roles and responsibilities under the new procedures.

ELIGIBILITY

Modified the handling of burials at the Mantokuji Soto Zen Mission cemetery, exempting them from the Native Hawaiian skeletal remains procedures and placing them under Department of Health requirements instead.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the House by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 20, 2026

Committee

Re-Referred to EDT, WAM.

upper

Mar 10, 2026

Committee

Referred to EDT/WLA, WAM.

upper

Mar 10, 2026

Introduced

Received from House (Hse. Com. No. 215).

upper

Mar 6, 2026

Lower · Passed

Passed Third Reading with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Perruso, Quinlan, Sayama excused (3). Transmitted to Senate.

lower

Mar 3, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on FIN recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes were as follows: 16 Ayes: Representative(s) Todd, Takenouchi, Hartsfield, Hussey, Keohokapu-Lee Loy, Kitagawa, Kusch, Lee, M., Miyake, Morikawa, Templo, Yamashita, Alcos, Gedeon, Reyes Oda; Ayes with reservations: Representative(s) Perruso; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Feb 19, 2026

Lower · Passed

Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN as amended in HD 2 with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and none excused (0).

lower

Feb 19, 2026

Committee

Reported from ECD (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 510-26) as amended in HD 2, recommending referral to FIN.

lower

Feb 13, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on ECD recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 7 Ayes: Representative(s) Ilagan, Hussey, Holt, Tam, Templo, Yamashita, Gedeon; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and Excused: none.

lower

Feb 9, 2026

Committee

Reported from WAL (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 97-26) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to ECD.

lower

Feb 5, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on WAL recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 7 Ayes: Representative(s) Hashem, Morikawa, Ichiyama, Poepoe, Woodson, Shimizu, Souza; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and 2 Excused: Representative(s) Belatti, Iwamoto.

lower

Feb 2, 2026

Committee

Referred to WAL, ECD, FIN, referral sheet 6

lower

Jan 28, 2026

Introduced

Introduced and Pass First Reading.

lower

6 primary · 0 co-sponsors