Holt on the record

Continues the licensing program for certified midwives and certified professional midwives and reestablishes the home birth task force. Families deserve access to culturally competent birth care, including traditional Hawaiian birthing practices. Aloha Chairs Takayama and Matayoshi, Vice Chairs Keohokapu-Lee Loy and Chun, and Committee Members, My name is Cristina Holt, and I am a resident of Hilo. I am testifying in strong support of H.B. 1328, relating to midwifery. Reproductive justice includes the fundamental right to choose where, how, and with whom to give birth. Access to midwifery care is essential for ensuring safe, culturally responsive, and individualized maternal health care for all families in Hawaiʻi. H.B. 1328 expands access to midwifery licensure while protecting Native Hawaiian and other cultural birthing practices, ensuring that traditional birth attendants are not criminalized. This bill is critical for the following reasons: ● Protects Reproductive Freedom: The Hawaiʻi State Constitution guarantees reproductive autonomy, which includes the right to choose birth attendants and settings that align with personal, cultural, and spiritual beliefs. ● Expands Midwifery Access: H.B. 1328 allows the nationally recognized Portfolio Evaluation Process (PEP) as a licensure pathway, ensuring that local student midwives can complete their training and serve their communities. ● Preserves Cultural Practices: Traditional Hawaiian and other cultural birth practices must be safeguarded to prevent the loss of generational knowledge. Kupuna practitioners must be able to pass down their wisdom to the next generations without fear of legal repercussions. ● Addresses Healthcare Disparities: Many families in rural areas and underserved communities lack access to hospital-based maternity care. Traditional and community midwives help fill this gap, offering safe, effective, and personalized care. ● Ensures Safety Through Inclusion: Restricting midwifery does not increase safety; rather, it forces care underground. Legal recognition and licensure provide pathways for midwives to work collaboratively with the medical system, improving outcomes for birthing people and infants. ● Supports Medicaid Reimbursement: Recognizing licensed midwives under Medicaid ensures that lower-income families have access to safe and affordable birthing options. ● Respects Family Autonomy: Criminalizing unlicensed birth attendants could result in family members—such as grandparents or hānai relatives—being penalized for attending births within their ‘ohana, despite no evidence that such practices endanger birthing people or newborns. For all of these reasons, I urge you to support H.B. 1328. This bill upholds reproductive justice, advances healthcare equity, and protects the cultural and personal rights of Hawaiʻi’s birthing families. Mahalo for your time and consideration. Cristina Holt

Beginning 2030, bans the use of pesticides containing 1,3-dichloropropene (Telone) as an active ingredient. Telone is a soil fumigant linked to serious health effects. Hawaiʻi's land and people deserve better. Aloha Chair Tarnas, Vice Chair Poepoe, and members of the committee. My name is Cristina Holt. I live in Hilo. I am here in support of HB 1880 and I am going to be honest with you about why this bill should not even be controversial. The European Union banned this chemical in 2009. That ban is almost old enough to vote. Seventeen years of peer reviewed science have piled up since then confirming what Europe already knew. You do not need a secret briefing or a special committee study. You need to pick up a journal and read it. The science is not hiding. 1,3-dichloropropene is a probable human carcinogen. It does not stay in the soil. It volatilizes. It drifts. It moves into the air that families breathe, that kids breathe walking to school, that farmworkers breathe while they are just trying to do their jobs. And the company responsible for it, Dow Chemical, is not a Hawaiʻi company. Dow does not live here. Dow's children do not go to school next to these fields. Ours do. Dow has spent decades and enormous sums of money making sure regulations like this one move as slowly as possible because every year of delay is another year of profit. That is not a conspiracy theory. That is their business model. And every year this legislature does not act is a year that model works exactly as intended, right here in our islands, on our people. Europe drew this line in 2009. We are sitting here in 2026 debating whether to follow. That is not a close call. That is not a complicated policy question. That is a question about who this legislature is actually working for. I want to believe the answer is us. Pass this bill and show me I am right. Mahalo. Cristina Holt Hilo, Hawaiʻi

Establishes the Hawaiʻi Farm to Families Program under the Department of Human Services, providing grants to fund local food distribution and alleviate food shortages across the state. Aloha Chair Marten, Vice Chair Olds, and Members of the Committee, My name is Cristina Holt. I live on Hawaiʻi Island, and I am here in strong support of HB 2208. One in three households in Hawaiʻi are struggling to consistently access food. And two-thirds of those families are skipping meals. Going whole days without eating. That is a moral alarm bell. We live in one of the most agriculturally rich places on earth. We can grow kalo. We can grow ʻulu. We can grow long beans and bok choy and Okinawan sweet potato. We can grow food that nourishes bodies and reflects culture. And yet we import nearly everything. So what does that mean? It means we are surrounded by abundance and still living with scarcity. That is not a supply problem. That is a systems problem. HB 2208 is elegant because it does something so simple it feels obvious: It connects the people who grow food with the people who need food and keeps the money here while doing it. That is infrastructure that must be prioritized, right now. Right now, food banks are operating at levels we saw during the height of the pandemic, except the emergency funding is gone.  At the same time, local farmers are struggling with rising input costs, shipping costs, land access, labor shortages. They need reliable markets. This bill answers both realities at once. When we invest in Hawaiʻi-grown food and route it through food banks, we are not just feeding families. We are strengthening local agriculture. We are building supply chains that are closer to home. We are reducing dependence on imported food that arrives by ship and leaves by cash flow. This program says fresh food is not a privilege. It is a baseline. It also says that mālama ʻāina is not just about protecting land from harm, it is about ensuring the land feeds the people who care for it. This bill is smart economics. The money circulates. Farmers stay afloat. Food banks distribute higher-quality food. Families eat better. Health outcomes improve. The state spends less downstream on preventable illness. It is rare that a bill aligns so cleanly with dignity, local economy, and long-term resilience. HB 2208 does. Please pass this bill. Mahalo for your leadership. Cristina Holt Hawaiʻi Island

Legalizes and regulates adult-use cannabis in Hawaiʻi with a framework that prioritizes social equity, supports small businesses and local farmers, generates tax revenue for public services, and decriminalizes past offenses. Aloha Chairs Takayama and Matayoshi, Vice Chairs Keohokapu-Lee Loy and Chun, and Committee Members, My name is Cristina Holt, and I am a resident of Hilo, HI. I am testifying in strong support of S.B. 1613, relating to cannabis. The legalization and regulation of adult-use cannabis in Hawaiʻi is a necessary step forward in ensuring social equity, economic growth, and public safety. SB 1613 provides a comprehensive framework for legalizing, regulating, and taxing cannabis for adult use while maintaining essential safeguards for medical patients and public health. This bill is critical for the following reasons: Promotes Social Equity: SB 1613 includes a social equity grant program to support communities disproportionately impacted by past cannabis criminalization, helping to create economic opportunities and ensure equitable participation in the legal market. Strengthens Public Safety: A well-regulated cannabis industry reduces illicit market activity, ensuring that cannabis products are tested, labeled, and safely distributed. Boosts Economic Development: Legal cannabis sales will generate substantial tax revenue that can be reinvested in essential state services, such as education, healthcare, and infrastructure. Supports Small Businesses and Farmers: This bill establishes pathways for local farmers and small businesses to enter the cannabis market, fostering economic diversity and sustainability. Provides Consumer Protections: By implementing clear regulations, SB 1613 ensures that consumers have access to safe, lab-tested cannabis products rather than unregulated and potentially harmful alternatives. Maintains Medical Cannabis Protections: The bill safeguards the rights of medical cannabis patients by maintaining access to high-quality, affordable treatment options. Hawaiʻi has the opportunity to join numerous other states that have successfully implemented legal, regulated cannabis markets. By passing SB 1613, we can shift resources away from unnecessary criminalization, invest in local communities, and create a safer, more just cannabis industry. I urge you to support S.B. 1613. Mahalo for your time and consideration. Cristina Holt

Establishes a grant program under the Department of Human Services to fund local food distribution and alleviate food shortages across the state. I support this bill!

Establishes a Conservation Agriculture and Soil Health Incentive Program to support farmers in adopting practices that build healthy soils and adapt to climate change. Aloha Chair Dela Cruz, Vice Chair Moriwaki, and Members of the Committee, My name is Cristina Holt. I live on Hawaiʻi Island, and I strongly support SB 2110, SD1. If we are serious about food security, climate resilience, and reducing dependence on imported inputs, then soil health must be funded like infrastructure. Healthy soil is not a boutique concept. It is the foundation of agricultural productivity, water retention, flood mitigation, and carbon sequestration. It reduces erosion. It reduces nutrient runoff. It reduces reliance on synthetic fertilizers and imported feed. It builds long term resilience into our food system. This bill does something important. It shifts conservation agriculture and soil health incentives into the Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, an entity that already works at the intersection of land management and climate strategy. That alignment matters. It also centers equity. The prioritization of small farms, beginning farmers, Native Hawaiian farmers, and socially disadvantaged farmers is not incidental. It is essential. These producers often face the highest barriers to accessing technical assistance and conservation funding, yet they are the backbone of localized food production. The inclusion of pre-application technical assistance at no cost is critical. Many small farmers are shut out of programs simply because the application process is too complex or resource-intensive. Removing that barrier is smart policy. This bill also recognizes that conservation is not about input substitution. It is about systems change. Cover cropping, agroforestry, rotational grazing, compost infrastructure, traditional loʻi kalo restoration. These are long term investments that strengthen land and community at the same time. If we want agriculture that survives climate instability, we must invest in practices that build soil organic matter, increase water holding capacity, and reduce dependence on globally sourced inputs. SB 2110 is strategic. It is measurable. It requires reporting. It requires evaluation. It requires equity metrics. What it requires now is funding. Please fully fund and advance SB 2110, SD1. Mahalo for your leadership. Cristina Holt Hawaiʻi Island

House companion to SB2039. Same program, same goal: getting local food to families who need it. Aloha Chair Marten, Vice Chair Olds, and Members of the Committee, My name is Cristina Holt. I live on Hawaiʻi Island, and I am here in strong support of HB 2208. One in three households in Hawaiʻi are struggling to consistently access food. And two-thirds of those families are skipping meals. Going whole days without eating. That is a moral alarm bell. We live in one of the most agriculturally rich places on earth. We can grow kalo. We can grow ʻulu. We can grow long beans and bok choy and Okinawan sweet potato. We can grow food that nourishes bodies and reflects culture. And yet we import nearly everything. So what does that mean? It means we are surrounded by abundance and still living with scarcity. That is not a supply problem. That is a systems problem. HB 2208 is elegant because it does something so simple it feels obvious: It connects the people who grow food with the people who need food and keeps the money here while doing it. That is infrastructure that must be prioritized, right now. Right now, food banks are operating at levels we saw during the height of the pandemic, except the emergency funding is gone.  At the same time, local farmers are struggling with rising input costs, shipping costs, land access, labor shortages. They need reliable markets. This bill answers both realities at once. When we invest in Hawaiʻi-grown food and route it through food banks, we are not just feeding families. We are strengthening local agriculture. We are building supply chains that are closer to home. We are reducing dependence on imported food that arrives by ship and leaves by cash flow. This program says fresh food is not a privilege. It is a baseline. It also says that mālama ʻāina is not just about protecting land from harm, it is about ensuring the land feeds the people who care for it. This bill is smart economics. The money circulates. Farmers stay afloat. Food banks distribute higher-quality food. Families eat better. Health outcomes improve. The state spends less downstream on preventable illness. It is rare that a bill aligns so cleanly with dignity, local economy, and long-term resilience. HB 2208 does. Please pass this bill. Mahalo for your leadership. Cristina Holt Hawaiʻi Island

Continues licensing for certified midwives and certified professional midwives, and reestablishes the home birth task force to make recommendations on home birth policy. Chair Matayoshi, Vice Chair Grandinetti, and Members of the Committee, I am submitting testimony in STRONG SUPPORT of HB 2404. I live in Hilo, and I tried to open a coffee shop under a cooperative model. I wanted it to be worker-owned, with the people making the coffee having a real stake in the business, sharing in the profits, and having a voice in how things were run. It seemed like exactly the kind of locally rooted, community-building business Hawaiʻi needs more of. But when I sat down with an attorney to figure out how to structure it, I ran into a wall. Hawaiʻi's cooperative statutes are built for agricultural associations and consumer co-ops. A worker-owned coffee shop did not fit into any of them cleanly. My options were to either force my cooperative vision into a legal structure that did not recognize cooperative principles, or organize as a regular corporation and lose the whole point.  HB 2404 would have changed that for me, and it will change it for the next person anywhere in Hawaiʻi who wants to build something together with their community rather than just for a handful of investors. This bill creates one flexible, unified legal framework that finally makes room for worker co-ops, multi-stakeholder co-ops, and other cooperative models that are already succeeding across the country. It lowers the legal complexity and cost that stopped me and others like me from getting started. I urge the committee to pass HB 2404. Mahalo for your time and consideration.

Beginning 2027, prohibits the application of restricted use pesticides within a half-mile radius of elderly health care facilities. Our kūpuna should not be breathing agricultural chemicals. SUPPORT!

Authorizes the Attorney General to sue polluters on behalf of the people of Hawaiʻi to recover costs from climate-attributable harm, including losses to the Hawaiʻi Hurricane Relief Fund. Also allows private insurers and the Hawaiʻi Property Insurance Association to bring civil actions to recover climate disaster costs from responsible parties. Establishes a Climate Disaster Special Fund to distribute what's recovered. The people who caused the climate crisis should pay for the damage it does here. Chair Dela Cruz, Chair Rhoads, Vice Chairs, and Members of the Committees, I am submitting testimony in strong support of SB 3000 SD1. I live in Hilo. I run a small business in Hawaiʻi. I watch my insurance costs go up every year while my coverage gets worse. I watch my neighbors get dropped. I watch people sell homes they can no longer afford to insure. This is not an abstract policy problem. It is happening right now to real people who did nothing to cause it. The fossil fuel industry knew for decades that their products were destabilizing the climate. They knew, and they ran coordinated campaigns to hide it. They funded doubt. They bought time. And now the bill is coming due, not for them, but for us. Our premiums. Our hurricane relief fund. Our public resources. Our ability to stay in the homes we built our lives in. SB 3000 says that is not acceptable. It says the people who caused this crisis should pay for it instead of passing the cost down to Hawaiian families and taxpayers. That is not a radical idea. That is accountability. Fossil fuel companies will have high-priced lawyers arguing this bill goes too far. I would ask the committees to consider who has already paid too much. I urge you to pass SB 3000 SD1. Mahalo for your time and consideration.