House committee advances bill to create University of Hawaii NIL endowment, chair removes appropriation language

HONOLULU — The House Committee on Higher Education voted Wednesday to advance Senate Bill 3263 SD2, which would establish a name, image and likeness (NIL) endowment trust fund for the University of Hawaii and require a systemwide NIL program and annual reporting to the Legislature.

The chair recommended replacing the senate text with the committee's version (HD1), removing the bill's appropriation section and referring funding amounts to the budget process. "We did insert $5,000,000 in the budget as part of HP 1800," the chair said during decision-making, and the committee adopted the chair's recommendation.

Matt Elliott, athletics director at the University of Hawaii, testified in support via Zoom, saying a state NIL framework "is critical for us to be able to move forward for our athletics departments to be successful." Elliott told members the department's private fundraising target for the current NIL commitments was $3,000,000 and that it had raised "over two thirds of the way there," reporting "we're over $2,000,000 right now." He added the university would still seek private-sector funds even with state support.

Labor representatives also supported the measure. Cody Solow of the Ironworkers Stabilization Fund said the group submitted written testimony and urged lawmakers to "please support our university." Cliff Laboy, also with the Ironworkers Stabilization Fund, described competitive pressures from large mainland programs and urged a larger initial investment, saying the NCAA rollout "went crazy on the Mainland" and that bigger schools are able to make much larger NIL payments.

A testifier the chair identified as "Mister Iosso" cautioned the proposed endowment corpus in the senate version would likely be insufficient to sustain NIL funding and said he preferred the house version. The chair acknowledged that concern and proposed removing the appropriation so the dollar amount could be handled in the budget.

During decision-making the chair explained the committee's approach: adopt the framework now and address the amount separately through the budget process. The committee then voted on the chair's recommendation to pass SB 3263 SD2 as amended; the chair's recommendation was adopted. The clerk recorded the vote: chair and vice chair voted aye; Representative Evelyn voted aye; Representative Capella was excused; Representatives Quila, Lechika, Olds, Woodson, Murrow Oca and Suzette voted aye.

The committee adjourned after adopting the recommendation. The bill will move forward in the legislative process under the committee's amended version and appropriations will be considered in the budget review process.