Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 5, 1 May 1993 — Legislators confer on sovereignty bills [ARTICLE]

Legislators confer on sovereignty bills

Editor's note: Although by the time this article is published, the Legislature will have made a decision on the Hawaiian sovereignty bills, we felt it would be useful for Ka Wai Ola O OHA readers to be informed of the process leading to that decision. by Jeff Clark You send us yours, we'll replace it with ours. That's what the House and Senate seemed to be saying to eaeh other in dealing with the two major Hawaiian sovereignty bills that eame before key eommittees this session. On March 22 the House Committee on Hawaiian Affairs deleted the entire text of Senate

bill 1028, whieh would have created a steering committee (Loa'a Ka Pono) to decide questions on how to achieve self-governance, and replaced it with the text of House bill 1992, whieh would have set the terms for the convening of a Hawaiian congress to draft a document as a basis for Hawaiian sovereignty. In turn, the Senate Committee on Govemmental Operations, Environmental Protection and Hawaiian Programs (in a joint hearing with the Senate Committee on Judiciary) on March 23 deleted the text of the House bill and replaced it with the text of the Senate bill. The bills were then passed by the Senate Committee on Ways and

Means and the House Committee on Finance, and were headed for conference committee as this artiele went to press. (A bill originating in one house must cross over to the other house. If changes are made that the originating house disagrees with, then the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill must be worked out in conference eommittee before it ean go to a floor vote.) The conference committee part of the legislative process was expected to continue through the last week of April. After the differences between the bills are worked out, the final bill would go to the floor of eaeh house for a

full vote. Sen. Anthony Chang, ehaiiman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations, Environmental Protection and Hawaiian Programs, said, "We'll force this issue into conference so that people will have time to eome to a consensus." Hawaiian congress This proposal, sponsored by OHA, would establish a Hawaiian congress, or constitutional convention, that would be held in 1994, if a May 2, 1994 referendum of Hawaiians shows a majority want the convention. An election of delegates would be held that September, and the ratification deadline would be March 1, 1995.

Loa'a Ka Pono committee This proposal, supported by Ka Lāhui Hawai'i, would establish a plebiscite to let Hawaiians answer the question, "Shall there be Loa'a Ka Pono (to secure what is right) to consider and decide issues relating to self-gov-emanee?" If the majority answer is "yes," a Loa'a Ka Pono Organizing Committee (LOC) would hold an election of delegates to the Loa'a Ka Pono, whieh would set its own procedures and whieh would have no set timetable within whieh to complete its work. Chang called the bill inserted into HB 1992 a "very close but improved version" of SB 1028. continued on page 10

Legislators debate sovereignty bills

continued from page 1 The new version of HB 1992 HD 2 SD 1 deleted language specifying that the Loa'a Ka Pono would be bicameral (meaning it would have two houses, as does Congress and the state Legislature) at the request of Ka Lāhui Kia'āina Mililani Trask, who said a bicameral decisionmaking body is totally alien to the Hawaiian experience. Trask proposed that it be amended to identify the 15 organizations represented on the LOC: OHA, Ka Lāhui, the Hawaiian Civic Clubs, the Hawaiian Civic Clubs Political Action Committee, the Council of Hawaiian Organizations, Ka Pākaukau, the Institute for the Advancement of Hawaiian Affairs, 'Ohana o Hawai'i, the Pro-Sovereignty Working Group, Nā 'Ōiwi, the State Council of Hawaiian Homes Associations, Hui Na'auao, Alu Like, the Hawai'i Business and Professional Association and the Hou Hawaiians. OHA govemment affairs officer Donald Scott Bowman III said, "The whole idea (of the Legislature) has been to take the House bill and the Senate bill and somehow mesh them." This began when the original House bill, introduced by OHA, was amended to include a plebiscite and the dates it outlined for the convention process were pushed back.

'The big difference is whether a special committee should be convened to work out the details, or whether the details should be put in the bill. I'm hoping the details are put in the (final sovereignty) bill, so we have a road map. Otherwise it ' 11 be like 'We're going to Kalihi but we don't know what route we're going to take and we don't know when we're going to get there,' " he said. During the hearing by the House Committee on Finance, Rep. Gene Ward said he wanted to have a frank discussion, to ensure that the Legislature is "straight" with the Hawaiian sovereignty advocates, and vice versa. Concemed the Hawaiians were being set up for a fall, he said that nationhood involves land and power and that these issues ean sometimes be laden with civil strife. He asked what would happen if the Hawaiians held their convention and eame back to the Legislature with a document and the Legislature said, "We didn't mean this." DeSoto said she expects the document will be reasonable, but not perfect and pa'a (firm) and will likely have to be changed, just as the U.S. Constitution and the state constitutions have been amended many times. Then Ward asked, "Is secession a possible option?" To whieh DeSoto replied, "Not to this tita."