Bill Text: HI HCR237 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requesting The University Of Hawaii To Develop A Network Of Scientists In The State To Provide Input On And Scientific Analysis Of Policies Under Legislative Consideration.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-03-28 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Souki excused (1). [HCR237 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2018-HCR237-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	237
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

REquesting the University of Hawaii to develop a network of scientists in the state to provide input on and scientific analysis of policies under legislative consideration.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, historically, science has played a pivotal role in government, ensuring that decisions made by policymakers to advance health, safety, and environmental protection will benefit the world and its citizens; and

 

     WHEREAS, in the late 1970s, concern about toxic waste dumps at Love Canal and Valley of the Drums led to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, which generates funds to clean up waterways to this day; and

 

     WHEREAS, as the result of the 1987 Montreal Protocol agreement among one hundred ninety-seven countries to stop the production of products containing ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, the hole in the ozone is shrinking and is now the smallest it has been since 1988;

 

     WHEREAS, in 1988, the World Health Organization adopted a resolution to eradicate polio, leading to a decrease in the number of annual reported cases from an estimated three hundred fifty thousand in 1988 to thirty-seven in 2016; and

 

     WHEREAS, for fiscal year 2018, President Donald Trump proposed to reduce funding for scientific research and cut the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency by more than $2,700,000; and

 

WHEREAS, the federal government has taken action to suspend and eventually rescind or revise the Clean Water Rule, which would have enhanced the environmental protections provided by the Clean Water Act; and

 

WHEREAS, the position of the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, colloquially known as the President's Science Advisor, has been vacant since Presidential inauguration day, the longest vacancy of that position since its establishment; and 

 

     WHEREAS, scientific analysis now remains the responsibility of the states, as federal focus on and funds for science have decreased; and

 

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii and other departments of the State have historically played an important role in the advancement of science and policy for Hawaii and the world; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1988, University of Hawaii researchers successfully established a deep ocean observation station regarded as one of the best-sampled places in the world and, in doing so, compiled a decades-long record of how the ocean responds to climate change; and

 

WHEREAS, carbon dioxide measurements taken at Mauna Loa since 1958 are now entering an important new phase as they monitor global efforts to curb greenhouse gas pollution in accordance with the Paris Agreement; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 2017, University of Hawaii researchers participated in one of the most significant astronomical discoveries when they observed a kilonova explosion, the observations and study of which fundamentally affected our understanding of the origin of many of the elements on Earth; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2018, the Senate concurring, that the University of Hawaii is requested to develop a network of scientists in the State to provide input on and scientific analysis of policies under legislative consideration; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the University of Hawaii is requested to develop the network for the purpose of ensuring that decisions made by the Legislature are based upon the most objective and best available scientific research and data; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chair of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii, and President of the University of Hawaii.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

University of Hawaii; Scientist Network: Legislative Analysis