[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 70 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E359-E360]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       INTRODUCTION OF THE HAWAII INVASIVE SPECIES PROTECTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. ED CASE

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 26, 2023

  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleague, 
Representative Tokuda, in introducing our bill to protect one of the 
most unique and fragile environments on Earth, our Hawaii, from 
devastating invasive species.
  Invasive species pose an especially grave threat to Hawaii's unique 
ecosystems, natural resources and agricultural communities, in part due 
to Hawaii's unique geography. Hawaii is the most isolated island chain 
and one of the most ecologically diverse places in the world. We are 
2,282 miles from the Continental United States, 2,952 miles from Japan 
and 4,772 miles from Washington, D.C., with no other islands in close 
proximity. We have within our constrained borders ten of the thirteen 
world climate zones, with ecosystems ranging from desert to tropical, 
where plants and animals that found their way to Hawaii evolved like 
nowhere else. A 2014 survey identified fully 9,975 endemic species in 
Hawaii. These species include the Hawaiian scarlet honeycreeper, the 
`i`iwi; the flowering evergreen; and the state mammal of Hawaii, the 
`ilioholoikauaua (Hawaiian monk seal).
  However, tragically, in large part due to invasive species, Hawaii 
has become the endangered species and extinction capital of the world. 
The Pacific Islands are home to 44 percent of the threatened and 
endangered species listed under the Endangered Species Act, and Hawaii 
currently has 468 species listed as endangered, more than any other 
state and almost half of the total endangered species nationwide. Many 
of these species are critically endangered and face an extremely high 
risk of extinction in the wild. Although we will never know the true 
number of species that have gone extinct in Hawaii, in 2021 alone nine 
Hawaiian species were declared extinct.
  As one particularly poignant example, four years ago the Atlantic 
published an article, ``The Last of Its Kind,'' which chronicled the 
death of George the snail. He was the last achatinella apexfulva, a 
species of tree snail that is endemic to the island of O`ahu. This 
article calls attention to the fact that snails in Hawaii are 
disappearing at an alarming rate, perhaps faster than any animal on 
Earth right now, victims of various factors in part linked to invasive 
species.
  The threat to our state tree, the `ohi`a lehua, is also illustrative 
of our growing crisis. Used for poi boards and outrigger canoes, the 
`ohi`a lehua is important to Hawaiian culture and the islands' 
watersheds. As the first tree to grow in new Hawaii lava flows, `ohi`a 
lehua grows throughout the watershed creating new soil, stabilizing 
steep mountain ridges and comprises approximately 80 percent of 
Hawaii's native forests. However, rapid `ohi`a death, or ROD, caused by 
an invasive fungal pathogen, kills `ohi`a trees quickly, and threatens 
the stability of Hawaii's native forests. Since its discovery on the 
Big Island in 2014, ROD has spread to Kaua`i, Mau`i and O`ahu, and has 
killed hundreds of thousands of trees.
  Hawaii's unique circumstances also have given rise to one of our 
nation's most diverse and productive agricultural communities. With a 
year-round growing cycle, our crops have ranged throughout our history 
from the highest quality sugar and pineapple and cattle to tropical 
specialty crops like fruit and cut flowers in the highest demand 
worldwide.
  Yet it is exactly because these crops like our natural resources have 
adapted to Hawaii's uniqueness that they are the most susceptible to 
devastation from external species against which they have no natural 
defenses. Invasive species have drastically impacted agriculture in 
Hawaii, threatening some of the island's most valuable crops in the 
state's third-largest industry.
  One of Hawaii's most valuable crops, the macadamia nut, remains under 
threat from the macadamia felted coccid. Macadamia felted coccid has 
been found in all of Hawaii Island's macadamia growing regions. The 
felted coccid reduces macadamia tree output by draining nutrients from 
the tree.
  The cattle industry, which is one of Hawaii's most important 
agricultural commodities, has been dramatically affected by the 
introduction of the invasive two-lined spittlebug. Since being detected 
in 2016, the pest now infects more than 200,000 acres of grassland and 
is clearing lands for invasives grasses that further affect Hawaii's 
ecosystems.
  Yet despite these incontrovertible and growing impacts of external 
species on Hawaii's natural resources and economy, existing federal law 
leaves Hawaii largely defenseless against increasingly destructive 
invasives.
  Imports by air and sea, the only means of in-bound transportation to 
our island state, lack any effective regulation to screen out 
invasives. This is despite a fairly robust screening of exports from 
Hawaii to the Continental United States to screen out invasives from 
Hawaii viewed as harmful to mainland agriculture (invasives that, 
ironically, were invasives into Hawaii to start with).
  I sought to crack down on this lax regime to prevent and curb 
invasives with my introduction of H.R. 3468 in 2005, modeled after New 
Zealand and other isolated jurisdictions with then like now the most 
stringent invasive species prevention regimes in the world. Since the 
introduction of that bill, the threats from invasives have only grown. 
Since 2005, 195 invasive species have been introduced to Hawaii. That 
is in addition to the roughly 5,000 invasive species that have been 
introduced to Hawaii throughout its history.
  Our bill, the Hawaii Invasive Species Protection Act, will require 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Inspection 
Service (APHIS), in cooperation with other federal departments and the 
State of Hawaii, to conduct visual, x-ray and canine inspections, as 
appropriate, on person, baggage, cargo and any other article destined 
for direct movement to the State of Hawaii. The inspections will search 
for high-risk invasive species and agricultural materials. The 
inspections will be conducted at airports, ports and postal sorting 
facilities prior to direct travel to the State of Hawaii.
  Our bill further requires APHIS to work with the State of Hawaii to 
develop and publish a list of the high-risk invasive species and 
agricultural materials for the State of Hawaii. It pays for these 
inspections by increasing Agriculture Quarantine Inspection fees to 
cover the full cost of inspection.
  Inaction is not an option. For example, the coffee berry borer, which 
was discovered in Kona on Hawaii Island in 2010 already infects all of 
the coffee growing islands in Hawaii. The coffee berry borer can cause 
yield losses of between 30 and 35 percent and affects the quality of 
the coffee beans, directly impacting the income of growers. Had this 
bill been implemented, it may have helped prevent coffee leaf rust from 
entering Hawaii. The confirmed and continued presence of this fungal 
disease, which can lead to yield losses of between 50 and 80 percent, 
on multiple Hawaiian islands could leave one of Hawaii's most iconic 
industries devastated.
  If we truly care about the threat that continued and escalating 
invasive species pose to one of the most invaluable and unique 
ecosystems on earth, in addition to our unique economy and way of life, 
then the stark reality

[[Page E360]]

is that this bill is what it will take. Again, it is not revolutionary 
when compared to other countries that have not only recognized this 
threat but actually done something about it.
  And it is certainly not revolutionary when compared to longstanding 
domestic restrictions on exports from Hawaii, leading to the basic 
point that if these invasive species prevention requirements are good 
enough for the rest of the country and much of the world then they're 
good enough for Hawaii.
  Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to the House for its understanding and 
careful consideration of Hawaii's challenge and opportunity and ask for 
our bill's expeditious passage.
  Mahalo.

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