SB371 creates new criminal offenses for damaging critical infrastructure facilities in Hawaii. It adds a first-degree offense when a person intentionally or knowingly damages a critical infrastructure facility without consent and either causes more than $20,000 in damage with substantial impairment, or uses a firearm, drone, or explosive weapon while causing substantial impairment. It also adds a second-degree offense for intentional or knowing damage without consent that causes substantial impairment. First-degree offenses are classified as class A felonies, and second-degree offenses as class B felonies.
The bill also defines key terms used in the new offenses, including “critical infrastructure facility,” “drone,” “explosive weapon,” “firearm,” and “substantial impairment.” For purposes of these offenses, critical infrastructure is expanded to include broadband and cable television networks. “Substantial impairment” is defined as an impairment lasting two hours or more or affecting 1,000 or more retail customers. The bill includes a standard savings clause preserving existing rights, duties, penalties, and proceedings, and it directs the revisor of statutes to renumber the new sections when codified. The effective date is set for July 1, 3000.
The bill’s practical impact is to strengthen criminal penalties for intentional damage to infrastructure systems that are essential to public services and communications, and to specifically protect broadband and cable networks alongside other critical infrastructure. It would amend Chapter 708 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes by adding new felony offenses and related definitions, thereby expanding the state’s property-damage framework to address infrastructure disruption more directly.
The available voting history suggests generally favorable sentiment toward the bill, with all recorded committee votes passing and no recorded floor action or final disposition shown in the provided materials. The bill moved through Senate Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs, Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, and Senate Judiciary with amendments, indicating support for the concept while refining the language.
The main points of contention likely concern the breadth of the new offenses and definitions, especially the inclusion of drones and broadband/cable networks, the threshold for “substantial impairment,” and the severity of class A and class B felony penalties. The committee amendments suggest lawmakers were working through how broadly to define protected facilities and what level of disruption should trigger felony liability, but no specific dissenting arguments are provided in the record.
SB371 would amend Hawaii’s criminal property damage statutes in Chapter 708 by creating two new felony offenses for intentional or knowing damage to critical infrastructure facilities. It expands the definition of critical infrastructure for these offenses to include broadband and cable television networks, and it adds statutory definitions for drone, explosive weapon, firearm, and substantial impairment. The bill would increase criminal exposure for conduct that disrupts essential services and communications infrastructure, with first-degree offenses punishable as class A felonies and second-degree offenses as class B felonies.
The recorded committee votes show broad support for the bill, with each committee passing it and no recorded opposition beyond a single nay in the first committee vote. The repeated passage with amendments suggests the measure was viewed favorably in principle, while also being refined to address drafting or policy concerns. No committee testimony is provided, so the overall sentiment can only be inferred from the unanimous or near-unanimous committee approvals.
Likely areas of contention include whether the bill’s definition of critical infrastructure is too expansive, particularly because it expressly includes broadband and cable television networks, and whether the “substantial impairment” threshold is sufficiently clear. The inclusion of drones as a triggering tool for first-degree liability may also raise concern about overbreadth or enforcement scope. In addition, the bill imposes serious felony penalties for property damage, so debate may center on proportionality, the $20,000 damage threshold, and whether the law could capture protest-related or other nontraditional conduct affecting infrastructure.