SB 688 Hawaii Senate · 2025 Regular Session

RELATING TO AGRICULTURE.

SB 688 allocates funds to create new grant specialist positions within the Department of Agriculture, effective July 1, 2050. These specialists will manage agricultural grant programs, directly supporting the Department’s staff and operations. The bill focuses on staffing resources to improve administration of existing grant initiatives, with no specific program details or beneficiary descriptions provided. It is a funding measure, not a policy change affecting external entities like farmers or businesses.

Issues: ✓ Budget & Taxes

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action Feb 4, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

SB688 → SB688_SD1 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill text was reformatted from a traditional legislative document to a structured amendment template, but the core policy content remains substantially the same. The most significant substantive change is the effective date, which was altered from July 1, 2025 to July 1, 2050, creating a ten-year delay in when the grant specialist positions would become operational.

Scope change

The bill's scope regarding grant specialist positions and funding amounts remains unchanged, but the effective date modification significantly impacts when the program begins implementation.

TIMELINE

The effective date was changed from July 1, 2025 to July 1, 2050, which would delay the creation of grant specialist positions by approximately 25 years.

TECHNICAL

The document format was converted from a standard legislative bill layout to an amendment template with metadata fields, though the actual policy text remains consistent.

Metadata information including document version numbers, timestamps, and revision identifiers were added to the header section.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 4, 2025

Committee

Reported from AEN (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 14) with recommendation of passage on Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referral to WAM.

upper

Jan 27, 2025

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

Jan 24, 2025

Upper · Passed

The committee(s) on AEN has scheduled a public hearing on 01-27-25 1:00PM; Conference Room 224 & Videoconference.

upper

Jan 23, 2025

Committee

Referred to AEN, WAM.

upper

Jan 17, 2025

Introduced

Introduced.

upper

2 primary · 0 co-sponsors