Governor Green’s Vetoes and Inaction: Jeopardizing our Biosecurity?

by Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director | Reading time: 2.5 minutes

While this yearʻs omnibus biosecurity bills failed to pass the legislature, public pressure and community champions were nonetheless able to get HB2619 passed, providing $20M in funding for various biosecurity programs, passed by the state legislature. 

Governor Josh Green himself called this “landmark legislation,” raising hopes that this small but nonetheless critical investment in the protection of our islands would enable the Department of Agriculture to step up to its unique role in fighting invasive species.  

Unfortunately, these hopes would soon begin to falter, as the Governor later indicated his intent to veto the bill. Despite countless emails and calls asking him to leave the measure intact, he ultimately slashed its $20M in biosecurity investments in half. Community members and organizations have since expressed their deep disappointment in the Governor’s decision to forgo funding that could prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in future damages from pests like the coconut rhinoceros beetle, little fire ant, and two-lined spittlebug.

Governor Green’s vetoes, however, are not the only indication that something is amiss in his administration’s oversight over the Department of Agriculture, and its oversight over known high-risk vectors of invasive species. 

He has now reportedly walked back his commitment to not rehire Carol Okada, the former department plant quarantine branch manager and current acting biosecurity chief. Okada has a reputation for  “hindering the state’s program with invasive species”, underscored by a scathing 2017 audit highlighting a decade of chronic problems with the department’s biosecurity program.

Meanwhile, the Governor’s office has been markedly quiet regarding the community’s calls for his Department of Agriculture to expedite quarantine rules that have languished for 16 months, for no discernible reason - other than conflicting excuses from department director Sharon Hurd (including an eventual admission that delays were due to nursery industry representatives objecting to the rules’ provisions stopping the movement of infested products as a “deal breaker”). 

Additionally, the Governor’s office has not responded at all to a shocking revelation that the Hawaiʻi Ant Lab was instructed by his department to “stand down” from assisting a nursery with a little fire ant infestation - thereafter leaving even well-meaning businesses in the dark as to how to respond to these devastating pests.

Clearly greater public pressure, and scrutiny, must be placed on the Governor and his Department of Agriculture, to step up to their kuleana and use the unique statutory authorities - and mandates - that the legislature has established for their role in our islands’ fight against invasive pests. 

Otherwise, our future environmental and cultural integrity, food security, public health, economy, and quality of life will suffer - possibly for generations - as a result of their inaction.  

Stay tuned for more actions you can take to help in the all-hands-on-deck campaign to protect our islands and our future from a new normal brought on by invasive pests. In the meantime, you can send an email to the Governor and your elected officials here, urging them to treat our biosecurity issues with the seriousness they require, subscribe to invasive species email alerts here, and sign up to volunteer with us.