[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 9 (Thursday, January 16, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E45-E46]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE HAWAII INVASIVE SPECIES PROTECTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. ED CASE

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 16, 2025

  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my Hawaii colleague, 
Representative Jill 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 
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. Hawaii has the world's highest percentage of endemic species--90 
percent of terrestrial and more than 25 percent of marine species are 
found nowhere else on Earth. 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 578 species listed as endangered or threatened, more than 
any other state. 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 2023 alone eight Hawaiian species were declared extinct.
  The threat to our state tree, the `ohi`a lehua, is also illustrative 
of out 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 
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 Hawai'i 
Island in 2014, ROD has spread to Kauai, Maui and Oahu, and has killed 
hundreds of thousands of trees.
  Hawaii's unique cucumstances 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

[[Page E46]]

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.
  Another prime and very current example of the challenges we face is 
the coconut rhinoceros beetle. It has become a menacing invader in 
Hawaii, wreaking havoc on the islands' palm trees and posing a serious 
threat to both the enviionment and the economy. This formidable beetle, 
with its massive size and powerful mandibles, burrows into the trunks 
of coconut palms and other tropical crops, such as kalo and bananas, 
causing extensive damage. According to the Hawaii Invasive Species 
Council, once the beetles bore into these plants, they can kill them, 
jeopardizing the entire ecosystem, agriculture and food security.
  The destruction of coconut palms by the beetle is especially harmful. 
These trees are vital to Hawaii's agricultural production, supplying 
coconuts for food, cosmetics and traditional practices. Additionally, 
they serve as iconic symbols of the islands' tropical landscape. With 
no natural predators to keep its numbers in check, the beetle's rapid 
spread continues to outpace control efforts, making it a growing crisis 
for Hawaii's environment, economy and cultural heitage.
  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 rigorous 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).
  Our bill, the Hawaii Invasive Species Protection Act, will require 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture 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.
  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 is that this bill is what it will take. Again, 
it is not revolutionary when compared to other island countries, most 
notably New Zealand, that have not only recognized this threat but 
actually have 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 this House for their understanding and 
careful consideration of Hawaii's challenge and opportunity and ask for 
our bill's expeditious passage.

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