Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 10, 1 October 2004 — Akaka Bill gets last-minute efforts [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Akaka Bill gets last-minute efforts

By Derek Ferrar As Ka Wai Ola goes to press, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (a.k.a. the Akaka Bill) is poised for a possible last-minute floor vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, having unanimously passed the House's Resources Committee on Sept. 15. Meanwhile, in the Senate - where opponents have long stalled the bill with an anonymous procedural hold - Hawai'i's delegation has vowed a down-to-the-wire push to attach the measure to government spending bills that must be passed before Congress adjourns. U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie,

primary sponsor of the House version of the measure, described the Resource Committee's approval as "a giant step" toward getting the bill passed before the close of the legislative session. "We're exploring every legislative path we know of," Abercrombie told the Associated Press. "We're moving on all fronts together." If the bill passes the full House before the end of session, it will be sent directly to the Senate. Onee there, however, it would require unanimous approval to reach a full floor vote - an unlikely scenario given the fact that at least one Senator, widely believed to be Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona, has so far prevented the measure from

moving forward. However, passage by the House could help in the efforts to gain passage of the bill as an attachment to an appropriations measure. "We have used every traditional means to pass this bill, going through committees and hearings, only to find that they (the Senate leadership) used an un-American method, a hold," senior Hawai'i Sen. Daniel Inouye told The Honolulu Ad.vertiser. "Onee they do that, you cannot move. If they insist, I'm going to try to put it on an appropriations bill, and if they hold that, they hold up the government." The Akaka Bill - named for its primary sponsor, Sen. Daniel Akaka - would set up a process

for formal U.S. recognition of a Hawaiian governing body, similar to the status held by Native American tribes and Alaska Natives. Supporters of the bill say it would help defend against lawsuits that have sought to eliminate Hawaiian programs and assets as being unconstitutionally "racebased." Some Hawaiian groups oppose the bill, however, saying that it gives too mueh control over Hawaiian affairs to the U.S. government. Other opponents say the bill would constitute illegal racial preference. If the federal recognition measure fails to pass before Congress adjourns, it would have to be reintroduced from square one in the next two-year congressional cycle. ■

Ni'i Hnn