HR 125 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

URGING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND THE DEPARTMENT OF LAW ENFORCEMENT TO STRENGTHEN LAW ENFORCEMENT CAPACITY TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND THE COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN BY STRENGTHENING STATEWIDE ENFORCEMENT INITIATIVES AND GENERATING A PLAN TO EXPAND SPECIALIZED INVESTIGATIVE PERSONNEL.

This House Resolution urges Hawaii's Department of the Attorney General and Department of Law Enforcement to improve their capacity to combat human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The bill requests the creation of a plan to expand specialized investigative personnel and strengthen statewide enforcement initiatives, including expanding the Operation Shine the Light program to all county police departments. It also calls for the establishment of specialized runaway youth recovery teams in each county to quickly locate missing youth who may be at risk of exploitation. Finally, the resolution asks state agencies to submit a report with staffing, training, and funding recommendations to the Legislature by early 2027.

Issues: ✓ Criminal Justice

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2026

Committee Review

Apr 2026

House Passage

Apr 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Mar 16, 2026 Last action Apr 2, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

HR125 → HR125_HD1 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was updated from a House draft to a House Committee version, primarily correcting formatting inconsistencies and standardizing the capitalization of government departments. The substantive policy content, including the specific actions requested of the Attorney General and Law Enforcement, remained effectively unchanged.

Scope change

No change in scope or applicability; the bill targets the same state agencies and issues.

TECHNICAL

Corrected inconsistent capitalization in the title and body text to ensure uniformity (e.g., changing 'State of Hawaii' to 'Hawaii' and standardizing department names).

Reformatted the title and header metadata to align with standard legislative document conventions.

Adjusted the phrasing of several 'BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED' clauses to improve grammatical flow without altering the legal requirements.

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

Apr 2, 2026

Lower · Passed

Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on JHA as amended in HD 1 with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and none excused (0).

lower

Apr 2, 2026

Committee

Reported from HSH (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1716-26) as amended in HD 1, recommending referral to JHA.

lower

Apr 1, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on HSH recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 8 Ayes: Representative(s) Marten, Olds, Amato, Keohokapu-Lee Loy, Takayama, Takenouchi, Alcos, Garcia; Ayes with reservations: none; Noes: none; and 1 Excused: Representative(s) Hartsfield.

lower

Mar 18, 2026

Committee

Referred to HSH, JHA, referral sheet 19

lower

Mar 16, 2026

Introduced

Offered

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors