Senate leader blocks
piggybacked Akaka bill
The Native Hawaiian Recognition bill was dealt another setback yesterday when the U.S. Senate's Republican leadership blocked an amendment offered by Hawaii's two Democratic senators.
However, Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye are looking at other options for getting the bill approved.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist blocked consideration of an amendment offered that included the text of the so-called Akaka bill to clarify native Hawaiians' political relationship with the federal government.
It was one of numerous amendments to the Class Action bill, which would limit the filing of such lawsuits and move many of them from state court to federal court.
Action on the bill effectively stopped when Frist, R-Tenn., put up barriers to all amendments, including the one by Akaka and Inouye, after he failed to reach agreement with Democrats on which ones would be allowed.
The Akaka bill would establish an office in the Department of the Interior to address native Hawaiian issues and create an interagency group composed of representatives of federal agencies that currently administer programs and policies affecting Hawaiians.
In effect, the federal government would recognize Hawaiians as a native population, as it already does American Indians and Native Alaskans.
In a floor speech, Akaka said he and Inouye have worked for five years to enact the recognition bill. Akaka said the bill has been blocked from consideration by "a handful of senators who refuse to acknowledge native Hawaiians as indigenous peoples."
Akaka said he and Inouye have the votes to pass the legislation, which provides a process for the recognition by the United States of a native Hawaiian governing entity.
Akaka also said they have enough votes on a motion to consider the bill. But getting a floor vote requires approval of the majority leader, according to Paul Cardus, Akaka's spokesman.
Inouye said through a spokesman yesterday that the amendment is not dead.
"There is a leadership squabble on how to proceed," he said. "I hope this matter will be resolved as quickly as possible, and Sen. Akaka and I will be able to offer the amendment."
Offering the recognition bill as an amendment was seen as the best opportunity for bringing it to a vote as the 108th Congress winds down, Cardus said. The legislative session will be shortened by the political conventions and election. Adjournment is scheduled for October.
If the bill is not passed by the time Congress adjourns, the bill will have to be reintroduced in the new Congress in 2005.
Frist was expected to file a petition yesterday that would limit debate and limit amendments to the Class Action bill. A vote could come tomorrow morning, and there are indications Frist would not get cloture, a procedure that ends debate and puts the measure to an immediate vote, Cardus said.
Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, said that limiting amendments, both those related and unrelated to the class-action issue, was "an absolute guarantee it will never get passed."
Negotiations could set aside the cloture vote, Cardus said.
Akaka and Inouye recently gave a presentation on the Hawaiian recognition bill to fellow Democratic senators, who gave their approval, Cardus said.
"I strongly support passage of the Native Hawaiian Recognition Act, and so, I suspect, do the vast majority of senators," Daschle said.