Sponsors (2)
Introduced January 16, 2025 by Ed Case · Last progress January 16, 2025
The bill strengthens protections for Hawaii’s agriculture and ecosystems and clarifies inspection authority and cost recovery, but does so by expanding inspections and enforcement powers and shifting costs onto shippers, exporters, and travelers—trading reduced biosecurity risk for greater delays, fees, and civil‑liberty concerns.
Farmers, agricultural workers, and Hawaii communities will face lower risk of invasive pests and diseases damaging crops, ecosystems, and property values because inspections and clearer enforcement reduce introductions and spread.
State and federal authorities and the public gain clearer, faster inspection and enforcement processes (including mandated publication of inspection lists within 180 days), improving transparency and speeding USDA response to threats to interstate commerce and quarantine enforcement.
Taxpayers and the Treasury are protected from subsidizing preclearance quarantine inspections because exporters and producers will instead pay fees that cover inspection costs, making cost recovery explicit.
Travelers, transport workers, and shippers will face more frequent inspections and longer predeparture processing times that can cause delays at airports, ports, and mail facilities.
Airlines, shipping companies, postal operators, and many small businesses (including agricultural exporters) may incur significant compliance, handling, and hold/disposal costs, raising shipping and logistical expenses.
Exporters and small producers must pay full preclearance inspection fees, potentially increasing per-shipment costs and reducing competitiveness for some U.S. agricultural products in overseas markets.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires APHIS preclearance (visual, x‑ray, canine) inspections for people, baggage, cargo, and mail to/from Hawaii, authorizes seizure/disposal of high‑risk items, and mandates user fees to cover costs.
Requires USDA (through APHIS), working with DHS, DOI, DOC, Treasury, and Hawaii authorities, to carry out visual, x‑ray, and canine preclearance quarantine inspections of people, baggage, cargo, and mail moving to or from Hawaii to detect high‑risk invasive species and agricultural materials. Gives APHIS authority to seize and dispose of detected high‑risk items, requires APHIS to publish a list of inspected items within 180 days, expands existing warrantless inspection language to explicitly cover Hawaii high‑risk items, and makes user fees mandatory to fully cover the cost of these preclearance inspections. Adds Hawaii‑specific screening language to related federal import/export and plant protection statutes, ties warrantless inspection authorities to the Hawaii preclearance program, and requires the Secretary to set and collect fees that recover full inspection costs from users.