THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2534
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

Proposing an Amendment to the Hawaii State Constitution to Prohibit Destructive Live-Fire Military Training on Public Lands.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the lands at Makua valley, Kawailoa-Poamoho, Kahuku, Pohakuloa, and Waimea are currently subject to leases with the United States military that are set to expire between 2028 and 2031, and include former crown and government lands of the Hawaiian Kingdom that must be held in trust by the State "for the benefit of native Hawaiians and the general public". Under article XI, section 1, and article XII, section 4, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii, the State has the highest fiduciary duty to preserve and maintain public trust lands, which includes kuleana to malama aina and protect natural and cultural resources for present and future generations.

The legislature further finds that destructive live-fire military training is the use of real, fully functioning weapons systems, whether individual or crew-served, that fire large caliber munitions using standard, incendiary, high-explosive, or inert ammunition, whether portable or vehicle-mounted, and includes the discharge of actual ammunition such as shells, rockets, bombs, explosives, and other ordnance as opposed to blanks, simulators, or "dry fire" exercises. Destructive live-fire military training encompasses heavy machine guns, crew-served weapons, artillery, rocket launchers, shoulder-fired missiles, hand grenades, grenade launchers, mortars, and demolition charges.

The legislature also finds that the military's use of public trust lands for destructive live-fire military training is inconsistent with the State's constitutional duties. The continued practice of destructive live-fire military training in the State has the potential to ignite wildfires, contaminate soil and water, scatter unexploded ordnance and debris, destroy cultural and natural resources through high-velocity cratering, shred vegetation, and desecrate the aina, and is antithetical to the State's responsibility to protect and steward the State's public trust lands.

The legislature recognizes that the Hawaii supreme court held in Ching v. Case, 145 Haw. 148 (2019), that the State had breached its constitutional public trust duties over ceded lands by failing to reasonably monitor and inspect the United States military's use of leased lands, inspections. However, inspection of the Army's lease area at Pohakuloa remains limited and covers only a fraction of the twenty-three thousand acres under lease, while unexploded ordnance, shell casings, and degraded lands persist across the training area. Similarly, state-leased lands at Makua valley, proposed for return to the State in 2029, remain highly contaminated with unexploded ordnance, and many areas remain inaccessible to people. Additionally, Kahuku and Poamoho, proposed for partial return to the State upon expiration of the current lease in 2029 under the Army's proposed modified retention alternative, remain highly contaminated, as do current and former military-leased lands used for live-fire training from Kahoolawe and Makua, to Waikane, Kanewaa, and Kaula Island.

The legislature acknowledges that, due to the costs of clean up and technological barriers to complete remediation, many of the former live-fire training sites may never again be fully accessible to the public land trust beneficiaries for cultural, recreational, educational, or subsistence access and use; productive economic use by the State; or any future Native Hawaiian governing entity that may seek to pursue the unrelinquished claims of Native Hawaiians to the former crown and government lands of the Hawaiian Kingdom, even after the lands are returned by the United States military.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to propose an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Hawaii to prohibit destructive live-fire military training on public trust lands.

SECTION 2. Article XI of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"DESTRUCTIVE LIVE-FIRE MILITARY TRAINING

Section . No destructive live-fire military training shall be conducted on the public trust lands identified in section 4 of article XII.

For the purposes of this section:

"Destructive live-fire military training" means the discharge of large caliber munitions employing standard, incendiary, high-explosive, or inert rounds, whether portable, crew-served, or vehicle-mounted."

SECTION 3. The question to be printed on the ballot shall be as follows:

"Shall the Hawaii State Constitution be amended to prohibit destructive live-fire military training--defined as the discharge of large caliber munitions employing standard, incendiary, high-explosive, inert rounds, whether portable, crew-served, or vehicle-mounted--on the State's public trust lands?"

SECTION 4. New constitutional material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This amendment shall take effect upon compliance with article XVII, section 3, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________
	By Request