SB 2709 Hawaii Senate · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO BIOSECURITY.

Summary

Requires the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity to establish rules to enforce the Akamai Arrival Program. Requires DAB to strengthen enforcement of plant and non-domestic animal quarantine and microorganism importations. (SD1)

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2026

Committee Review

Feb 2026

Senate Passage

Feb 2026

House Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 23, 2026 Last action Feb 20, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

SB2709 → SB2709_SD1 · 3 edits

MINOR

This bill update primarily involves technical formatting corrections and administrative metadata changes, such as updating the bill type from 'SB' to 'SD' (Senate Draft) and correcting specific dates. It also fixes a minor grammatical error in the text regarding the inspector's authority to enter and inspect carriers. No substantive policy changes, new funding, or altered eligibility criteria were introduced in this version.

TECHNICAL

Updated bill metadata to reflect the 'SD1' (Senate Draft 1) version, changing the bill type designation and associated dates.

Corrected a grammatical error in Section 150A-5(4) by changing the inspector's authority from 'shall' to 'may' when deciding to inspect carriers.

Fixed inconsistent hyphenation in the list of importable articles (e.g., changing 'nursery-stock' to 'nursery-stock').

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate. No roll call record of that vote is available.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 20, 2026

Upper · Passed

Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM.

upper

Feb 20, 2026

Committee

Reported from AEN/TRS (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 2562) with recommendation of passage on Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referral to WAM.

upper

Feb 17, 2026

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on AEN recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in AEN were as follows: 5 Aye(s): Senator(s) Gabbard, Richards, DeCoite, Rhoads, Awa; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 0 Excused: none.

upper

Feb 17, 2026

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on TRS recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in TRS were as follows: 5 Aye(s): Senator(s) Inouye, Elefante, Kanuha, Lee, C., DeCorte; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 0 Excused: none.

upper

Feb 10, 2026

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on AEN/TRS has scheduled a public hearing on 02-13-26 3:00PM; Conference Room 224 & Videoconference.

upper

Jan 28, 2026

Committee

Referred to AEN/TRS, WAM.

upper

Jan 23, 2026

Introduced

Introduced.

upper

4 primary · 2 co-sponsors