WATCH OUT - HERE THEY GO AGAIN!
Senator Inouye Says Fight Not Over Yet On Akaka Bill -
From The Honolulu Advertiser
The push for federal recognition for Native Hawaiians is coming to a head this fall as proponents fight to have that status approved by Congress by the end of the current session.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, a leading champion of the Native Hawaiian Reorganization Act - the so-called Akaka bill - said he's planning to attach the legislation to one of the 12 appropriations bills still moving through Congress.
Congress might have little more than a month of lawmaking left, with pressure mounting to adjourn early before the general election, and the federal recognition bill is still languishing without a hearing on the Senate floor. It has been seen as a means to give Hawaiians a protected, political status that would derail lawsuits that challenge as unconstitutional programs or benefits targeting them.
The use of an appropriations package as a vehicle for the Akaka bill seems to be the only means left for its passage this session, because of the hold placed on it by the Senate's Republican leadership, Inouye said....
Complicating all of this: The Akaka bill does not enjoy universal support, even among Native Hawaiians, some of whom believe it gives too much control over Hawaiian affairs to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the federal agency that oversees Native American tribes and Native Alaskan corporate entities.
Read the rest... http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Sep/07/ln/ln17a.html/?print=on
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