Time tight for Akaka Bill

There are enough votes in the U.S. Senate to pass by year’s end a bill to treat native Hawaiians like the nation’s other indigenous groups.

That’s according to Sen. Daniel Akaka’s office and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

But the legislation would still need to be squeezed into a busy Senate calendar, and it already failed to get consideration before lawmakers left Washington for their August recess.

Akaka says there’s still time to pass the legislation that would allow native Hawaiians to receive similar treatment as Alaska natives and American Indian tribes.