Governor is optimistic
on Akaka bill’s prospects
Gov. Linda Lingle said she will know today if and when she is needed to travel to Washington, D.C., again to continue lobbying for a native Hawaiian federal recognition bill in the U.S. Senate.
Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona is there doing just that.
The Governor's Office said yesterday Aiona arrived in Washington last week to discuss the Akaka bill with U.S. Department of Justice officials and to raise federal money for his planned drug summit this September in Waikiki.
Lingle said yesterday she is more optimistic than ever about the chances of S.344 gaining passage in the Senate.
She said a Washington Post story Sunday on the Akaka bill has raised national awareness about the rights of native Hawaiians and the support they have received from Hawaii's congressional delegation and the Lingle administration.
"We're starting to hit a level on it that we want it to," Lingle said yesterday.
Anticipation is high there will be movement on the Akaka bill in the next few weeks. Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye described an important window of opportunity between mid-July and the first week in August for passage of the measure.
Pro-sovereignty backers have been e-mailing people to send in comments to the congressional delegation against the Akaka bill. Paul Cardus, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, said he has heard about these e-mails but said there are no indications the native Hawaiian federal recognition bill will come up soon for debate.
Cardus said the measure was placed on the Senate calendar on June 27 and could come up at any time. Even so, Akaka has not mentioned any movement of the measure this week and still has to speak about its passage to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Cardus said Akaka and Inouye remain confident they can round up the votes to secure its passage.
If Lingle is called upon by Hawaii's congressional delegation to travel to lobby for the Akaka bill, it would be the second time she has done so in the last six months.
This is the fourth year that Akaka has attempted to pass the federal recognition bill. The bill would set up a process upon which Hawaiians can form their own government that could be certified by the U.S. secretary of the interior. Such action would give them similar political status as American Indians and Alaskan Natives.