Gov pans Akaka
bill effort

Inouye and Akaka are criticized
for not educating colleagues
on Hawaiian issues

Gov. Linda Lingle says Hawaii's senators have failed to adequately educate their congressional colleagues on the Akaka bill, which would grant federal recognition to native Hawaiians and is scheduled to go before a Senate committee on Tuesday.

"I think they need to make their colleagues aware of the bill. ... I think they need to redouble their efforts," Lingle said in a telephone interview yesterday from Washington, D.C., where she is attending a meeting of the National Governors Association.

"I have been a little frustrated that it hasn't gone further on the congressional side."

Lingle plans to testify at next week's Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing, the first for the bill this year.

Both Hawaii senators and several Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees also are scheduled to make comments.

But the Republican governor said yesterday that during her time in Washington, D.C., she has stepped up efforts to talk to senators about the Akaka bill after being disappointed at how ill-informed some lawmakers are on the measure.

"I kept running across people who had never heard of it," she said, though she declined to say who she has talked to about the bill.

Lingle added she was "under the impression" that Hawaii's two senators had been charged with persuading members of Congress to back the bill, while she was to convince the Bush administration to support it.

"I find I'm splitting my time" between the two efforts, Lingle said. "I just feel the delegation ... they just weren't talking to enough people."

Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye said Lingle's criticism is unfounded, given that members of Congress consider thousands of bills annually and "no one expects any member to know everything that happens," especially when it does not pertain to their state.

"At this stage, I think the most important step would be the president," said Inouye. "My relationship with the president is not as good as Gov. Lingle's relationship. ... That's where she can do the most good."

President Bush has not voiced his position on the bill, but Lingle and others -- including Inouye -- are confident that he will back it if it passes.

The Akaka bill was introduced to Congress in 2000 and would establish an office in the U.S. Department of Interior to address native Hawaiian issues and create an interagency to administer programs for native Hawaiians.

Under the bill, which has been revised several times since its introduction, the federal government would formally recognize Hawaiians -- as it does American Indians and native Alaskans -- as a native population.

Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka has said he has received assurances that the bill will pass out of committee and onto the Senate floor for a vote from Senate Republicans who had prevented a vote on the measure last year. He hopes the bill will come to a full Senate vote by August.

Akaka's spokeswoman, Donalyn Dela Cruz, said yesterday that the senator is confident that this will be the year that the Akaka bill is passed.

"I think Sen. Akaka is definitely hopeful," she said. "He's worked very hard in reintroducing it this year ... but Sen. Akaka definitely has a fight ahead of him."

Inouye's chief concern about the Akaka bill this session is that the measure will get buried under other massive issues facing Congress, including the funding of the Iraq war and Social Security reform.

"This year may be a difficult year," he said. "The agenda is an overwhelming one. We're at war. The president has his sights set on revisions of the Social Security laws. He has a plan to make permanent certain tax cuts.

"There's a full platter. A measure like this, it's important to Hawaii, but it's not on the top" of Bush's agenda.

Dela Cruz said that Akaka has met with all members of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and has talked extensively to other senators about the bill.

Inouye also said that he has briefed members of the committee, including its chairman, Sen. John McCain.

McCain has voiced opposition to the bill, saying he would prefer to increase funding for existing native Hawaiian programs rather than pass the measure.

"When Hawaii became a state," the Arizona Republican said in January, "there was an implicit agreement at that time that native Hawaiians would not receive the same status as native Americans."

But Inouye said yesterday that McCain has assured him that he will vote to report the bill out of the Indian Affairs Committee so that it can get a full Senate vote.

"I can't ask for anything more," Inouye said.

Lingle said the bill has languished for too long, and she intends to "stay very focused this year" on its passage.

"We're ready to move forward on this," she said, adding that she is not thinking about how to proceed if the bill fails for a fifth year.