Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 5, 1 May 2005 — Federal delegations details chances, obstacles in Akaka Bill passage [ARTICLE]

Federal delegations details chances, obstacles in Akaka Bill passage

By Sterling Kini Wong At recent hearings held by the state Legislature, Hawai'i's seniorU.S. senator said he is confident that the Akaka Bill will pass the Senate, but Hawai'i's representatives in the federal House of Representatives said that passage of the measure in that body could be more of a challenge because the Bush administration has yet to indicate its position on the matter. Although versions of the bill have been introduced in Congress since 2000, the full Senate has never voted on it. At the end of last year's congressional session, however, the Senate leadership promised that they would provide a full debate and vote on the bill no later than this summer. At a March 31 legislative briefing, Sen. Daniel Inouye said he is convinced the bill will "prevail by a hefty margin" in the Senate, but that he is not sure what types of amendments might be added on in the process. "I am certain that we ean defeat amendments that we feel may not be helpful," Inouye said. "On the other hand, some of my colleagues may eome forth with suggestions that we should seriously consider." One procedural obstacle in the Senate, however, could be the amount of time allotted for debate on the issue. OHA Administrator Clyde Nāmu'o said that Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, an opponent of the bill who used a procedural hold

to block it from moving forward during the last session, has requested 45 hours of debate time. "That is a considerable amount of floor time and could influence whether it's debated sooner rather than later," Nāmu'o said, adding that OHA's lobbying firm was to meet with Kyl to clarify how mueh time he needed to debate. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie said that the passage of the bill through the House of Representatives could be difficult because President Bush has still not indicated his stance on the legislation. Abercrombie said that House Republicans will be reluctant to pass the bill if there is a ehanee the president will veto it. "The position of the administration has to become clear," he said. "If that is resolved favorably, then I think the passage of the bill essentially in its present form is not preordained, but certainly enhanced." State Attorney General Mark Bennett said that he has been meeting with Bush administration officials to address their concerns over the legality of the bill. One such eoneem, Bennett said, is whether Congress has the power to extend recognition to Native Hawaiians without a defined percentage of blood quantum. Bennett said that as long as Native Hawaiians themselves determine the blood quantum needed to be a citizen of the native governing entity described in the bill, he believes the courts will uphold that decision. Bennett said he also tried to assure administration officials that the preferences that would be afforded to Native Hawaiians through the Akaka Bill would be based on a political relationship, not a racial one, and thus would not violate the racial-equality provisions of the U.S. Constitution.