[ OUR OPINION ]
Keep fighting to enact
Akaka bill in this sessionA desperate maneuver by Hawaii's U.S. senators failed to keep alive a bill in Congress providing for federal recognition of Hawaiians. In a session shortened by the upcoming political conventions and the election, the bill sponsored by Senator Akaka was among several measures proposed to be added to the bill aimed at preventing lawyers from making millions of dollars in class-action lawsuits.
THE ISSUE
The Hawaiian recognition bill was defeated in Congress in a procedural standoff.
The Akaka bill should have been enacted on its own merit, but obstructive tactics forced the Hawaii senators to turn to the amendment procedure to gain its passage. They should continue next year to push for its enactment, either alone or as an ornament to another bill.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., tried to block all amendments to the class-action lawsuit bill, but champions of numerous amendments unrelated to the main bill brought about his defeat. He needed 60 votes to impose the restriction, and the 44-43 vote on Thursday in favor of the move prompted him to effectively kill the main bill. "We're out of time," he said.
Akaka said his bill was offered as an amendment because it "has been effectively blocked from Senate consideration by a handful of senators who refuse to acknowledge native Hawaiians as indigenous peoples." The chief obstructionist has been Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., who is believed to be the senator who put an anonymous hold on the bill.
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved it last year, and it has been changed to address concerns by the Interior Department. The Justice Department has reservations about the bill, but those constitutional questions are likely to be resolved in court, where opponents will maintain that it is racially discriminatory. Passage of the Akaka bill would bolster the defense against similar challenges to policies of Kamehameha Schools and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Those cases are pending in court.
The bill essentially provides federal recognition of Hawaiians similar to the recognition afforded American Indian and native Alaskan tribes. It has bipartisan support, and Governor Lingle had agreed to encourage Republican senators to support the measure as an amendment to the class-action lawsuit bill.
Other amendments proposed by Democrats to the class-action lawsuit bill included raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 an hour during the next few years, fighting global warming, extending an assault-weapons ban that is due to expire this year and giving temporary legal status to undocumented farm workers.
The Akaka bill might have been hampered by the controversial nature of those proposals, but the host of bills created an alliance that crossed party lines, leading to the defeat of Frist's attempt to block all of them. Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho said he was "extremely disappointed" to learn that Frist had blocked the migrant worker bill.
