Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 9, 1 September 1999 — OHA chair addresses congressional delegation [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA chair addresses congressional delegation

By Jayson Harper 0FFICE OF Hawaiian AfiFairs Board of Trustees Chair Rowena Akana provided testimony Aug. 16 to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies in a crowded federal courtroom here. Senators Daniel Inouye and Dan Akaka, as well as U.S. Representative Patsy Mink, presided over the hearings. Trustee Haunani Apoliona also attended the hearings but did not provide testimony. Testimony was provided by various community groups and agencies. For several hours the congressional delegation heard from experts in social services and medicine. Chair Akana testified on health, housing and education, citing familiar statistics. Compared to other groups within the state, Hawaiians are more likely to

succumb to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and stroke. Chair Akana spoke of the federal government's "institutionalized neglect" of Native Hawaiians. "For many, the legacy of that past neglect is a present life of despair, frustration and increasing burdens of social and physical disease," she said. The grim statistics presented to the subcommittee underscored the importance of the Native Hawaiian Health Care

Improvement Act whieh has been law for approximately 10 years. Chair Akana urged the committee to reauthorize the bill with the amendments drafted jointly by OHA, Queens Hospital and E Ola Mau.

Additionally, Chair Akana spoke of the role of OHA and Papa Ola Lōkahi in developing health policies and programs affecting Hawaiian people. The United States Congress is currently considering amendments to S. 225, a bill that would extend federal low-ineome housing assistance to Native Hawaiians. As proposed, OHA's amendments to the bill would have increased the number of Hawaiians who could benefit hom this program and would have allowed OHA, in addition to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, to address the housing needs of Hawaiians. In connection with the Native Hawaiian Education Act, also up for reauthorization, Chair Akana spoke of the importance of education in the Hawaiian eommunity. OHA, she said, has been working closely wilh representatives of Hawaiian educational programs to develop joint amendments to the current bill under consideration. According to Chair Akana, these amendments focus on four areas: Formulation of an early childhood education eouneil, early childhood demonstration projects, programs for youth at risk, and broadening the scope of the Native Hawaiian Education Council. ■

OHA Chair Rowena Akana