The so-called Akaka Bill, which would recognize native Hawaiians as an Indian tribe and create a new governing entity for them with vaguely defined powers, will receive a markup in the House Natural Resources Committee tomorrow.
The bill is mind-bendingly bad in its intent and likely effects, but it has a serious chance of passage. Nothing has really changed about it since I wrote this summary about four years ago:
The bill would create an open-ended negotiation process between a proposed native-Hawaiian governing entity and the federal and state governments. The process could ultimately give this entity the powers of taxation and law enforcement, hundreds of thousands of acres of Hawaiian land and the right to discriminate based on race. Members of the tribe would be enrolled based on race, and the tribe’s governing entity could become immune from civil rights laws, much like American Indian tribal authorities, which are permitted to establish state religions and discriminate based on race and sex.
Sen. Daniel Akaka, D, Hawaii, has been promoting the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act for a very, very long time. What’s more, the state’s Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a quasi-independent agency created by the state constitution that would likely take on the role of the native Hawaiian governing entity, has spent $770,000 in just the last two years on lobbyists. This bill is the sole item on its lobbying agenda.
In 2005, Akaka had five Republican co-sponsors for this bill in the Senate, two of whom are still there — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. In the House, the bill is carried by Hawaiian Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who recently announced he will resign from Congress to run for governor.
