INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY HIGHLIGHTS AKAKA BILL "SNOW JOB"
Akaka Bill revisions draw Hawaiian ire
by Jerry Reynolds / Washington D.C. correspondent / Indian Country Today
WASHINGTON - After a year and a half of delicate maneuvers designed to navigate the Akaka Bill through the 108th Congress with a minimum of stormy weather, its sponsors turned in a virtuoso job of sailing close to the wind without quite capsizing at an April 21 business meeting of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on S. 344.
The reason for the meeting was to report Senate Bill 344 (commonly referred to as the Akaka Bill from its lead sponsor, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii) to the full Senate a second time, in an amended version this time around. According to the initial statement of Pat Zell, the committee's Democratic chief of staff, the amended version addresses the concerns of the Bush administration, and in particular the Interior Department, with the original version of the bill that would extend federal recognition to Native Hawaiians. Zell presented the new bill to the committee in narrative form. Under questioning however from Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., the committee chairman, she revised her estimate of Interior's enthusiasm downward by noting that only "most" of its concerns with the original bill had been met. Neither Interior nor the Justice Department has endorsed the bill, though Zell said their concerns contributed to the revision.
The new short title tells a tale of sea-changes that have alarmed some indigenous
Hawaiians. Instead of unamended S. 344's "Native Hawaiian Recognition Act of 2003," the amended short title is "Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2004."
Still more complex is the amended purpose of the bill. S. 344 offered a relatively
straightforward, "The purpose of this Act is to provide a process for the recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity for purposes of continuing a
government-to-government relationship." Senate Amendment 3043 substitutes: "The purpose of this Act is to provide a process for the reorganization of the Native Hawaiian governing entity and the reaffirmation of the political and legal relationship between the United States and the Native Hawaiian governing entity for purposes of continuing a government-to-government relationship."
The one recognizes a government, the other reorganizes it. But the "reaffirmation of the
political and legal relationship" language of the amended purpose also implies the history of indigenous self-governance in the islands, meaning it might be seen to recognize the government it would reorganize.
Continued Tomorrow In Part Two...
