[ OUR OPINION ]

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Senators finally
achieve breakthrough
on Akaka bill

THE ISSUE Opponents of the Hawaiian recognition bill have agreed to allow a Senate vote on the measure next year.

A nimble execution of old-fashioned logrolling appears to have moved Hawaiian recognition past roadblocks in the U.S. Senate on its way toward passage next year. Other obstacles may emerge, but an agreement reached this week greatly increases the likelihood of enactment. Senators Inouye and Akaka can take a bow and continue their efforts to reach that goal.

Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., had used an archaic Senate rule that allows a senator to put an anonymous hold on a bill to keep the recognition bill, called the Akaka bill for its sponsor, from reaching the Senate floor. The measure was approved by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in May 2003 but was left dangling afterward because of Kyl's obstructionism. Akaka and Inouye tried last month to circumvent Kyl by offering the text of the Akaka bill as an amendment to a bill aimed at limiting lawyer's fees from class-action lawsuits, but Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., effectively killed the main bill rather than allow the attachment of the Akaka bill and other unrelated amendments. Using the same strategy, Inouye offered the Akaka bill last week as an amendment to a Senate funding bill, joining a series of energy-related amendments, some of them dear to Kyl. The Akaka measure was likely to kill the proposals supported by Kyl, so Sen. Pete Domenici brokered a deal for Inouye to drop the Akaka bill in amendment form in return for Kyl to drop his hold on the bill next year. The energy amendments passed the Senate last weekend.

Akaka said assurances by Kyl, Domenici, Frist and Senate Democratic Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.C., to bring the Akaka bill to the Senate floor by Aug. 7 means "that we will no longer endure the procedural shenanigans that have prevented the Senate's consideration of this bill for the past five years." The pledges would make it unseemly for another senator opposed to the bill to replicate Kyl's tactic in next year's Congress.

The House approved the Akaka bill by voice vote in the last Congress and was on its way to House floor after Rep. Neil Abercrombie gained its approval by the House Resources Committee. No significant opposition appears present in the House, where rules disallow the kind of skulduggery practiced by Kyl. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, has said he would sign the bill into law, but President Bush has not commented on it. Governor Lingle has been a strong supporters of the bill and has traveled to Washington three times to lobby for its enactment and acceptance by the Bush administration.

The bill has been altered to address concerns by Interior Secretary Gale Norton about land use, taxation, legal jurisdiction and other issues, but legal issues remain. Kyl regards the bill as unconstitutional. If enacted, it will almost certainly be challenged in court.