HR 161 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

REQUESTING THE HAWAII EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY TO ASSIST IN ORGANIZING A STATEWIDE SUMMIT OF ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON COMMUNITY RESILIENCE HUBS.

This bill requests the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency to help organize a statewide summit focused on community resilience hubs, which are centers designed to support residents before, during, and after emergencies. The resolution directs the agency to partner with Vibrant Hawaii and Community Engagement for Resilient Neighborhoods to coordinate with organizations across the state and explore strategies for strengthening these hubs. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency is also asked to provide technical assistance and submit a report with findings and recommendations to the Legislature by the end of 2026.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2026

Committee Review

Apr 2026

House Passage

Apr 2026

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Mar 16, 2026 Last action Apr 1, 2026

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What changed between versions

HR161 → HR161_HD1 · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was updated from a House Committee version to the House of Representatives version, incorporating formatting corrections and substantive policy refinements. The text was cleaned up to remove hidden characters and improve readability. Policy-wise, the scope of the requested summit was slightly narrowed by removing the specific geographic qualifier 'on Oahu' for the coordination clause, and the required report was modified to focus on 'best practices' rather than the establishment of hubs, removing a mandate for proposed legislation.

Scope change

The bill's scope regarding the summit's coordination was slightly broadened by removing a specific geographic limitation, while the reporting requirement was narrowed to focus on best practices instead of specific legislative proposals.

REQUIREMENT

The requirement for the Emergency Management Agency to coordinate the summit was modified by removing the specific phrase 'on Oahu', changing the scope of coordination to apply to organizations on Oahu and across the State without the initial geographic restriction.

The reporting requirement was changed from submitting findings on the 'establishment' of community resilience hubs and 'proposed legislation' to submitting findings on 'best practices' for these hubs.

TECHNICAL

The phrase 'subject matter expertise' was hyphenated to 'subject-matter expertise' for grammatical consistency.

The title of the bill was updated from 'HR161' to 'HR161 HD1' to reflect its status as the first House of Representatives version.

Several lines containing hidden control characters and formatting artifacts were removed to clean up the text.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the House by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 1, 2026

Lower · Passed

Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN as amended in HD 1 with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and none excused (0).

lower

Apr 1, 2026

Committee

Reported from PBS (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1602-26) as amended in HD 1, recommending referral to FIN.

lower

Mar 27, 2026

Lower · Passed

The committee on PBS recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 5 Ayes: Representative(s) Belatti, Iwamoto, Ichiyama, Shimizu, Souza; Ayes with reservations: none; 0 Noes: none; and 4 Excused: Representative(s) Hashem, Morikawa, Poepoe, Woodson.

lower

Mar 18, 2026

Committee

Referred to PBS, FIN, referral sheet 19

lower

Mar 16, 2026

Introduced

Offered

lower

4 primary · 0 co-sponsors