Akaka OKs Native Hawaiian recognition strategy

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, who patiently sought a vote on a Native Hawaiian federal recognition bill in the Senate for a decade, has signed off on a more aggressive strategy to advance the idea before he retires in January 2013.

A policy rider inserted by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye into the Senate’s draft of a Department of the Interior spending bill would allow the federal government to recognize Native Hawaiians in a way similar to how it recognizes American Indian tribes. Federal recognition is the core of the Akaka Bill, so establishing the concept in federal law would lay the foundation for a movement toward self-governance.

The strategy to advance the Akaka Bill in pieces, rather than as stand-alone legislation, is an acknowledgement of the political reality in Washington, D.C. Democrats have a majority in the Senate, but Republicans who think the bill is unconstitutional, race-based discrimination are able to use the chamber’s unique procedural rules to prevent a vote without the consent of 60 of 100 senators. Republicans control the House — where the bill has passed three times over the past decade — and would reject the bill if it came to a vote again.

"We continue to look for options," Akaka said Friday after speaking at the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs convention at Turtle Bay Resort.

The 87-year-old Hawaii Democrat is not seeking another term next year after serving for more than two decades in the Senate and 13 years in the House. The policy rider might be one of the last opportunities to make Native Hawaiian federal recognition part of his legacy before he retires.

Congressional staffers, speaking privately, describe the potential for a "perfect storm" behind an idea that looked all but dead when Senate Democrats lost their filibuster-proof supermajority and Republicans won control of the House last year.

Inouye, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, inserted the policy rider into the Senate’s draft of the fiscal year 2012 spending bill for the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and related federal agencies. The rider would allow the secretary of the interior to recognize Native Hawaiians in the way American Indians and Alaska Natives are recognized. Hawaiians would not immediately be entitled to new federal benefits — such as the Indian Health Service, the federal health program for American Indians and Alaska Natives — but existing federal programs for Native Hawaiians would have greater legal protection.

Fiscal year 2012 for the federal government started in October without a budget agreement, so lawmakers approved a six-week extension in spending through Nov. 18 to keep the government functioning. House and Senate lawmakers are in negotiations over the 12 appropriations bills — including the Department of Interior spending bill — needed to operate the government.

Dozens of policy riders favored by both Democrats and Republicans are on the table in the appropriations bills, providing Inouye — the Senate’s senior member — with leverage to include Native Hawaiian recognition in a compromise.

Negotiations over the bill might focus on several House Republican policy riders that would restrict the regulatory power of the EPA in areas such as greenhouse gas emissions. With the pressure to adopt a budget, and the national attention on more sweeping policy riders, congressional staffers believe Native Hawaiian recognition could survive.

Richard Rowland, president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, a conservative-to-libertarian public policy group critical of the Akaka Bill, believes a policy rider is not the appropriate track for an issue of such consequence.

"It’s a terrible thing to try to do it like this and to kind of sneak up on it," said Rowland, who also asks why Hawaiians would want to be treated like American Indians by the federal government. "What we ought to have is a vote in Hawaii of the people."

Native Hawaiians who want independence from the United States also oppose federal and state recognition as threats to sovereignty, but their voices have been in the minority.

The state version of the Akaka Bill appeared largely symbolic when Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed it into law in July, because federal recognition has long been the target, but it is a critical component of the new strategy in Washington.

A five-member commission, led by former Gov. John Waihee, will prepare a roll of qualified adult Hawaiians who are either descendents of the aboriginal people who lived in the islands before 1778 or are eligible for homestead leases under the federal Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, passed in 1921. The Hawaiians must also have maintained significant cultural, social or civic connections to the Native Hawaiian community.

It would be these Hawaiians, recognized in state law as indigenous people with the right to self-government, who would be eligible for federal recognition by the Interior Department.

State Sen. Malama Solomon (D, Hilo-Honokaa) said Hawaiians belonged to a kingdom, not an Indian tribe, so it has been difficult to fit Hawaiians into federal Indian policy for purposes of recognition.

"This is really a unification bill," she said of the state law. "It will start to really identify the nation, because in all of our conversations about sovereignty and self-governance, that is the entity that has been missing, in terms of recognizing who the nation is. And I think that this bill would bring a lot of that to rest."

While Native Hawaiian federal recognition is a priority, Akaka, who serves as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, also has several other policy goals for his final year in office.

Akaka hopes to pass legislation to respond to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2009 that prohibits the Interior Department from acquiring and holding land in trust for Indian tribes that were not federally recognized when the Indian Reorganization Act was enacted in 1934. The senator has said the court’s ruling will lead to inequities in federal Indian policy if allowed to stand.

The senator supports bills to promote culture-based education and to allow Indians to lease their land for economic development without prior approval from the Interior Department.

Akaka plans to introduce a bill this week to strengthen tribal jurisdiction over domestic violence and sexual assault to help better protect native women from abuse.

His mission, he said, has been to "try to upgrade the quality of life for the indigenous peoples. And I see it coming. But I also and you also know that there have been many laws that have not been enforced that are there. So I’m looking at that, too."

Akaka said he intends to stay neutral and not endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary to replace him, although he attended a labor fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, who is facing former congressman Ed Case, and has been complimentary.

"I think her experience in the House, it will help her in her work in the Senate as well, because she’s come to know the system," he said of Hirono. "And it will help her do things for Hawaii."

Many of Akaka’s friends and allies are still upset over Case’s primary challenge to Akaka in 2006, but the genial senator has been more forgiving and cordial.

Akaka also said he appreciated former Gov. Linda Lingle, the Republican contender for his Senate seat, for her support of some versions of Native Hawaiian federal recognition.

"But of course, as a Democrat, I’d like to see us keep the majority," he said. "You know how narrow it is now."

After Akaka’s speech to the Hawaiian civic clubs, Hawaiians stood in line near the stage to wish him well, share memories, or pose for pictures. His words may not come as quickly as they once did, his gait may be slower, but his aloha spirit remains a powerful force.

"I hope that they feel that I served Hawaii well," he said. "And I served Hawaii with aloha."