Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 4, 1 April 2005 — Senate panel passes amended recognition bill [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Senate panel passes amended recognition bill

By Derek Ferrar On March 9, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee unanimously passed an amended version of the Hawaiian GovernmentReorganizationAct, alsoknown as the "Akaka Bill" after its primary sponsor,

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawai'i). The committee's vote eame after the bill was amended to clarify that it would not make Native Hawaiians eligible for federal Indian programs and services. The amendment, submitted by Akaka and Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawai'i) jointly with Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), was designed to address concerns McCain had expressed about the bill. Akaka said the amendment will not adversely impact Hawaiian programs. "Native Hawaiians already have their own federal programs addressing matters including health, education and housing

whieh are separately authorized and appropriated," he said. This is the fourth time the Indian Affairs Committee has approved a Hawaiian federal recognition bill. In the last three congressional cycles, the bill failed to reach a full vote on the Senate floor. At the end of last year's session, however, the Senate leadership promised that the bill would get a full vote this year. "I am very pleased that the committee has voted for the fourth time to favorably report this bill," Akaka said. "We have a challenging road ahead of us as we prepare for a debate and roll eall vote on the Senate floor."

Akaka's press secretary, Donalyn Dela Cruz, said the senator is optimistic that the Hawai'i delegation ean garner enough votes to win full Senate approval for the bill. Meanwhile, an identical bill must also be passed by the House of Representatives. The House voted solidly to back the recognition bill during the last congressional cycle and is expected to do so again. The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, whieh this year is designated as Senate Bill 147 and House Resolution 309, would set up a process through whieh the federal government, See AKAKA on page 1 6

AKAKA from page 1 through the Department of the Interior, would extend formal political recognition to a yet-to-be-formed Native Hawaiian governing body. Advocates of the bill, including the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' Board of Trustees, say it is needed to help protect Hawaiian rights and assets from ongoing legal attacks. Some Hawaiian opponents of the measure, however, believe that it will only cause even further loss of native resources, culture and identity. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, advocates of a "colorblind America" believe the bill would give Hawaiians unconstitutional "preferential" treatment. Hawai'i officials lobby for bill The Indian Affairs Committee's passage of the bill eame after Gov. Linda Lingle, Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees and other officials traveled to Washington to testify and lobby in favor of the measure. "Native Hawaiians seek selfdetermination not unlike American Indians and Alaskan natives," OHA Chairperson Haunani Apoliona told the committee. "We ask for this same opportunity, this same freedom to develop programs that best serve our members, lessen dependence on government and take advantage of opportunitiestomakepositivecontributions to our economy."

L i n g 1 e , meanwhile, discussed the bill with fellow Republican McCain and also with President Bush, who has yet to take a position on the issue, when she was invited to

spend several nights at the White House. Soon after, however, partisan finger pointing broke out between Lingle and Hawai'i's allDemocratic congressional delegation, with the legislators charging that Lingle had failed to sway Bush and Lingle countering that the delegation has yet to get a recognition bill passed by their colleagues after more than five years of trying. Senators' arctic drilling vote draws accusations Fuel was thrown on the flames of the debate when, on March 16, Akaka and Inouye cast the deciding votes in the Senate's narrow approval of a measure authorizing oil exploration in Alaska's Artic Nalional Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a goal long sought by President Bush. The measure succeeded by just two votes,

meaning that if the Hawai 'i senators had voted the other way, the measure would have been defeated. Only one other Democrat broke party ranks to vote in favor of the ANWR drilling provision. The senators' votes on the Arctic Refuge bill drew strong protests from some Akaka Bill opponents, who have

long said they suspected the senators might trade their votes on arctic drilling in exchange for support for Hawaiian recognition. Both senators, however, said that their votes were based on longstanding convictions. Akaka said he voted for drilling "based on my experiences in Alaska, when I spoke to the Inupiat peoples who greatly desire this opportunity for eeonomie self-determination. For me, this vote is not a vote just about preservation of the environment versus development. It is a vote about the self-determination of an indigenous people and their homeland." A full Senate vote on the Akaka Bill is expected this spring or summer. As part of the agreement reached at the end of last year's session, the senate leadership promised an up-or-down vote by the end of August. £J

Sen. Akaka offers fesfimony af fhe inelian Affairs Commiffee hearing on his Hawaiian recognifion bill. Commiffee Chairman Sen. John McCain is at far left.

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