SB657 • 2026

RELATING TO THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT DEVELOPMENT.

Budget Education Technology

Active

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Sponsor: GABBARD, CHANG, MCKELVEY, MORIWAKI, RHOADS
Last action: 2026-04-17
Official status: Re-Referred to EDU/AEN, WAM.
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

RELATING TO THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT DEVELOPMENT.

What This Bill Does

RELATING TO THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT DEVELOPMENT.
UH; SOEST; Center for Climate Resilient Development; Establishment; Climate Change; Appropriation ($) Appropriates funds for the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology within the University of Hawaii at Manoa to establish and operate a Center for Climate Resilient Development.
Effective 7/1/3000.
(HD1)

Limits and Unknowns

This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Amendments

These notes stay tied to the official amendment files and metadata from the legislature.

HD1

Hawaii published version HD1

Plain English: SB657 HD1 THE SENATE S.B.

SB657 HD1 THE SENATE S.B.
NO.
657 THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025 S.D.
1 STATE OF HAWAII H.D.

SD1

Hawaii published version SD1

Plain English: SB657 SD1 THE SENATE S.B.

SB657 SD1 THE SENATE S.B.
NO.
657 THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025 S.D.
1 STATE OF HAWAII A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT DEVELOPMENT .

Bill History

2026-04-17 S
Re-Referred to EDU/AEN, WAM.
2026-04-02 S
Received notice of the discharge of all House Conferees (Hse. Com. No. 457).
2026-04-01 H
House Conferee(s) discharged.
2026-03-20 H
Received notice of all Senate conferees being discharged (Sen. Com. No. 409).
2026-03-20 S
Senate Conferee(s) discharged.
2025-12-08 D
Carried over to 2026 Regular Session.
2025-04-23 H
Conference Committee Meeting will reconvene on Friday 04-25-25 3:00PM in conference room 229.
2025-04-21 H
Conference Committee Meeting will reconvene on Wednesday 04-23-25 3:00PM in conference room 229.
2025-04-21 S
Received notice of appointment of House conferees (Hse. Com. No. 754).
2025-04-17 H
Bill scheduled for Conference Committee Meeting on Monday, 04-21-25 3:45PM in conference room 229.
2025-04-17 H
Received notice of Senate conferees (Sen. Com. No. 825).
2025-04-17 S
Senate Conferees Appointed: Kim Chair; Gabbard, Hashimoto Co-Chairs; Fevella.
2025-04-17 H
House Conferees Appointed: Garrett, Hashem, Lamosao Co-Chairs; Souza.
2025-04-17 H
Re-referred to HED, WAL, FIN, referral sheet 33
2025-04-04 H
Received notice of disagreement (Sen. Com. No. 590).
2025-04-04 S
Senate disagrees with House amendments.
2025-04-04 S
Received from House (Hse. Com. No. 469).
2025-04-03 H
Passed Third Reading with none voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Garcia, Kong, Pierick voting no (3) and Representative(s) Cochran, Woodson excused (2). Transmitted to Senate.
2025-04-03 H
Reported from FIN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1923), recommending passage on Third Reading.
2025-03-27 H
The committee on FIN recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes were as follows: 13 Ayes: Representative(s) Yamashita, Takenouchi, Grandinetti, Holt, Keohokapu-Lee Loy, Kitagawa, Kusch, Lamosao, Lee, M., Miyake, Morikawa, Templo, Reyes Oda; Ayes with reservations: none; 0 Noes: none; and 3 Excused: Representative(s) Hussey, Alcos, Ward.
2025-03-24 H
Bill scheduled to be heard by FIN on Thursday, 03-27-25 2:00PM in House conference room 308 VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE.
2025-03-21 H
Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with Representative(s) Muraoka, Shimizu voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Alcos, Garcia, Pierick voting no (3) and Representative(s) Cochran, Garrett, Kapela, Kitagawa, Ward excused (5).
2025-03-21 H
Reported from HED (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1414), recommending referral to FIN.
2025-03-19 H
The committee on HED recommend that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes were as follows: 9 Ayes: Representative(s) Garrett, Amato, Evslin, Kapela, Kila, La Chica, Olds, Souza; Ayes with reservations: Representative(s) Muraoka; Noes: none; and 2 Excused: Representative(s) Sayama, Woodson.
2025-03-14 H
Bill scheduled to be heard by HED on Wednesday, 03-19-25 2:00PM in House conference room 309 VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE.
2025-03-14 H
Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on HED with none voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Alcos, Garcia, Pierick voting no (3) and Representative(s) Cochran, Holt, Iwamoto, Ward excused (4).
2025-03-14 H
Reported from WAL (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1263) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to HED.
2025-03-11 H
The committee on WAL recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 9 Ayes: Representative(s) Hashem, Lamosao, Belatti, Ichiyama, Iwamoto, Morikawa, Poepoe, Souza; Ayes with reservations: Representative(s) Shimizu; Noes: none; and 1 Excused: Representative(s) Woodson.
2025-03-07 H
Bill scheduled to be heard by WAL on Tuesday, 03-11-25 9:00AM in House conference room 411 VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE.
2025-03-06 H
Referred to WAL, HED, FIN, referral sheet 19
2025-03-06 H
Pass First Reading
2025-03-04 H
Received from Senate (Sen. Com. No. 181) in amended form (SD 1).
2025-03-04 S
Report Adopted; Passed Third Reading. Ayes, 23; Aye(s) with reservations: none. Noes, 2 (Senator(s) Awa, DeCorte). Excused, 0 (none). Transmitted to House.
2025-02-28 S
One Day Notice 03-04-25.
2025-02-28 S
Reported from WAM (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 942) with recommendation of passage on Third Reading.
2025-02-27 S
The committee(s) on WAM recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, UNAMENDED. The votes in WAM were as follows: 13 Aye(s): Senator(s) Dela Cruz, Moriwaki, Aquino, DeCoite, Elefante, Hashimoto, Inouye, Kanuha, Kidani, Kim, Lee, C., Wakai, Fevella; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 0 Excused: none.
2025-02-21 S
The committee(s) on WAM will hold a public decision making on 02-27-25 10:30AM; Conference Room 211 & Videoconference.
2025-02-11 S
Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM.
2025-02-11 S
Reported from HRE/AEN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 232) with recommendation of passage on Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referral to WAM.
2025-02-04 S
The committee(s) on HRE recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in HRE were as follows: 5 Aye(s): Senator(s) Kim, Kidani, Fukunaga, Hashimoto, Fevella; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 0 No(es): none; and 0 Excused: none.
2025-02-03 S
The committee(s) on AEN recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in AEN were as follows: 3 Aye(s): Senator(s) Gabbard, Richards, Rhoads; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 1 No(es): Senator(s) Awa; and 1 Excused: Senator(s) DeCoite.
2025-01-31 S
The committee(s) on AEN deferred the measure until 02-03-25 1:06PM; CR 224.
2025-01-31 S
The committee(s) on HRE deferred the measure until 02-04-25 3:45PM; CR 229.
2025-01-28 S
The committee(s) on HRE/AEN has scheduled a public hearing on 01-31-25 1:50PM; Conference Room 224 & Videoconference.
2025-01-23 S
Referred to HRE/AEN, WAM.
2025-01-17 S
Passed First Reading.
2025-01-17 S
Introduced.

Official Summary Text

RELATING TO THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT DEVELOPMENT.
UH; SOEST; Center for Climate Resilient Development; Establishment; Climate Change; Appropriation ($)
Appropriates funds for the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology within the University of Hawaii at Manoa to establish and operate a Center for Climate Resilient Development. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

SB657

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

657

THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025

STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating
to the center for climate resilient development
.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

����
SECTION 1.
�
The legisture finds that leaders in the State are keenly aware of the vulnerabilities
and threats posed by climate change hazards
,
however no individual office or agency is responsible for developing
community resiliency plans.

����
The
legislature

also
finds that
community resiliency is addressed by the
Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change
(IPCC)
, the world's leading authority
on climate science.
�
In its
latest Assestment Report 6 (AR6), the IPCC define
d
the term
"
climate resilient development".
�
The legislature finds that climate resilience
development combines strategies to adapt to climate change with actions to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions to support sustainable development with an
emphasis on social equity for all communities.

����
The
legislature further finds that AR6 also defines climate resilient development
involving

questions of equity and system transitions in
land, ocean
,
and ecosystems; urban

and infrastructure; energy; industry;
and society
,
and includes adaptations for human,
ecosystem and planetary health.

����
The
legislature finds that given the lack of climate resilient development capacity
in the State, the legislature proposes leveraging existing modeling expertise
in the
s
chool of
o
cean and
e
arth
s
cience and
t
echnology (SOEST) at the
u
niversity of Hawaii at Manoa
,

which
has already been working with communities to identify multiple forms of
flooding due to sea level rise, hurricane storm surge, heat projections, and
leverages campus-wide expertise in wildfire ignition modeling.
�
Additionally, the State utilizes modeling
products developed by SOEST for the mandatory disclosure of sea level rise in
real estate transactions pursuant to section 508D-15(a)(5) and the analysis of
sea level rise required by the State's environmental review process.
�
The counties also rely on modeling products
developed by SOEST to carry out ordinances related to shoreline setbacks and
special management areas.

����
The
legislature also finds that these modeling capacities at SOEST are currently
funded by soft money grants and contracts and thus are a fragile resource for
Hawaii to depend on for community-focused climate science
and
could disappear any year if funding failed to materialize.
�
The legislature notes that due to the
incoming federal administration's desire to cut budgets and hostility to
climate research, this critical research is at risk of being lost.

����
The legislature finds that there should be
created
a
c
enter for
c
limate
r
esilient
d
evelopment in SOEST at
the university of Hawaii at Manoa
.
�
The
c
enter
should
be a community-focused resource that
provide
s
guidance on climate hazards, work
s
moku by moku across the state assessing risk and vulnerabilities to
climate hazards
,
and mak
es
recommendations for capital improvement projects and shovel-ready
projects to build resiliency.
�
The
c
enter
should
also continue to seek external
funding to bolster its efforts and expand research and modeling capabilities.

����
Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to
appropriate funds to establish and operate the center for climate resilient
development.

����
SECTION 2.
�

There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii
the sum of $3,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year
2025-2026 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal
year 2026-2027 for the university of Hawaii school of ocean and earth science
and technology to establish and operate the center for climate resilient
development.

����
The sums

appropriated shall be expended by the university of Hawaii for the
purposes of this Act.

����
SECTION 3.
�

This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2025.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

UH;
SOEST; Center for Climate Resilient Development; Climate Change; Appropriations

Description:

Appropriates
funds for the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology within the
University of Hawaii to establish and operate a Center for Climate Resilient
Development.

The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.