Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 8, 1 ʻAukake 2005 — Senate to act on S.147 in early September [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Senate to act on S.147 in early September

After many obstacles in July, OHA chair still hopeful for the bill's passage.

By Sterling Kini Wong The late-July maneuverings by Republicans to delay a floor debate on the Akaka Bill in the Senate bring to light the long and difficult road facing Hawaiians who support federal recognition as a means to right the historic wrongs committed against them. However, as the bill's obstacles in Congress become clearer, and as Hawai'i's senators prepare for a possible floor debate in September, OHA Chair Haunani Apoliona remains optimistic of the bill's passage. "The important thing to remember is that the bill is very mueh alive and the votes are there to pass this historic legislation when the Senate next meets," she said. "We had hopes the senators would stick to earlier commitments to have a debate and an up or down vote in July,

but we understand this is how the system works and we're prepared to eome back in September for a final vote." But for many supporters of the Akaka Bill, whieh lays out the process for the federal recognition of Native Hawaiians, there was little reason for such optimism in the last two weeks before the Senate adjourned for its month-long August recess. Hawai'i's senators expected the bill to be heard as early as the week of July 18. But as debate on the bill heated up in the national media, and with both Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl and the U.S. Justice Department weighing in with their eoncerns, six Republican senators used procedural holds to stop the bill from progressing to the Senate floor. See DEBATE page 20

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Debate Continued from page 1 Just days before the Senate was to break, however, Hawai'i's Sens. Daniel Akaka, the bill's namesake and prime sponsor, and Daniel Inouye orchestrated a deal with Republican Senate leaders that could force debate and a vote on the bill when the lawmakers reconvene. On July 29, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist filed what's called a cloture petition, whieh would force 30 hours of debate followed by a vote. Under the procedure, however, 60 votes are needed to start debate. Hawai'i's senators aren't certain whether they will have those votes. "According to the count," Inouye told Tlie Honolulu Advertiser, "we have it, but I've been here long enough to know things ean change." And that's only on the Senate side. Hawai'i Rep. Ed Case said that the roadblocks the bill faces in the Senate may affect its passage out of the House. "If it has broad opposition in the Senate, and assuming that it does pass, you would expect there to be some crosspollination. There is clearly going to be some House activity," Case told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. While the delay disappointed some people anxious for any sort of movement on the five year-old bill, others were caught off guard by the volume of attention the bill received at the nahonal level.

In July, some of the most respected news sources in the country ran stories or editorials about the bill, including the Ne H' York Times, the Waīī Street Joumaī, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. On June 22, Kyl, the bill's most vocal opponent in the Senate, stirred up controversy when he submitted to the Republican Policy Committee a 13-page paper criticizing the bill. In the paper, he claimed that the Akaka Bill would create a race-based government for Native Hawaiians. He also said that the bill is being promoted in Hawai'i as a vehicle for the Native Hawaiian nahon to secede fromthe U.S. "[The Akaka Bill] represents a step backwards in American history and would create far more problems - eultural, practical, and constitutional - than it purports to solve," he wrote. "It must be rejected." On July 13, in a letter to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, U.S. Assistant Attorney General William Moschella raised several of the federal Justice Department's concerns about the bill. Moschella said that the bill should contain language that: - clearly states who would have the authority to enforce criminal laws on the lands of the Native Hawaiian governing entity; - prohibits the Native Hawaiian nahon from engaging in gaming; - states that the bill would not interfere with military operations in Hawai'i; -precludes both potential monetary

claims or the recovery of lands onee held by Native Hawaiians; and -reduces the unusually long 20-year claims period. Supporters of the bill welcomed Moschella's letter as a sign that the federal administration does not oppose the intent of the bill and is willing to work to improve it. Meanwhile, Gov. Linda Lingle and state Attorney General Mark Bennett, both of whom traveled to the Nation's Capitol in late July to lobby for the bill, delivered a strong rebuttal to Kyl's letter. In their 10-page document, Lingle and Bennett said that the bill is constitutional and would extend to Hawaiians the same polkieal status Congress has extended to the other native peoples of the United States. The document stated: "Congress's power to recognize America's native people is plenary, and the Supreme Court has declared that ... it is for Congress, and not the courts, to determine whieh native peoples will be recognized, and to what extent." The document also said that nothing in the bill authorizes or permits total independence for the Native Hawaiian nahon. Several of the Republican senators who placed the holds on the bill said that they did so out of concerns over gambling and whether the bill is uneonstitutional because it may be based on race. While debates on Hawaiian federal recognition played out on the national

stage, loeal opponents of the Akaka Bill - from both conservative organizations, most notably the Grassroot Institute of Hawai'i (see story on page 1), and Native Hawaiian groups such as the Hui Pū (see federal recognition forum on page 8) - also stepped up their efforts against the bill. In July, Hui Pū members requested that OHA give the same amount of funding to provide for education on Hawaiian independence and other self-determina-tion models as the agency spends on supporting the Akaka Bill. Members of the Grassroot Institute called for a statewide plebiscite on the Akaka Bill. The group released the results of their survey, whieh showed that 67 percent of Hawai'i residents who participated said they oppose the Akaka Bill. "Our governor and congressional delegation are spending our tax dollars lobbying senators from other states while ignoring their own constituents," said Richard Rowland, president of Grassroot Institute. However, some questioned the credibility of the survey because they said the questions and the actual surveying process were slanted in such a way as to generate a particular result. Now that the Senate seems set to take action on the bill, its supporters have to brace themselves for whatever new challenges lay ahead, including potential unsupportable amendments. And most people agree that, at this point, anything could happen.