STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3114

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.R. No. 45
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs and
Transportation and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was
referred S.R. No. 45 entitled:

     "SENATE RESOLUTION REQUESTING THAT THE PRESIDENT AND
     CONGRESS RECOGNIZE AN OFFICIAL POLITICAL RELATIONSHIP
     BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND THE HAWAIIAN
     PEOPLE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to request that the federal
government recognize the political relationship between the U.S.
Government and the Hawaiian people in a similar manner afforded
to Native Americans and Alaska natives.

     The measure also requests that the federal government
designate a permanent agency within the Department of the
Interior to address Hawaiian reconciliation proceedings and the
political status of Hawaiians.

     Testimony in support of the measure was received from the
Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), two individual OHA trustees,
the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and the Ka Lahui Hawaii
Political Action Committee.

     The Hawaiian Political Action Council of Hawaii testified in
opposition to the measure.


 
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     Your Committees find that during the 1980s and early 1990s,
there were many impediments at the federal level, to a
consideration and resolution of issues related to ceded lands and
to Hawaiian political status.  In 1983, the federal Native
Hawaiian Study Commission Majority Report concluded that the
federal government was not liable for the loss of sovereignty or
lands arising from the overthrow, and in 1989, the Bush
administration disavowed the position of the Carter
administration that there was a trust relationship between the
Hawaiian people and the federal government.  Additionally, in
early 1993, the Department of the Interior's Solicitor's Office
issued a legal opinion that the federal government "had no trust
responsibilities to the native Hawaiians either before Statehood
or thereafter."

     However, in recent years, the Clinton administration has
taken a more thoughtful view of federal responsibilities relating
to Hawaiians, rescinding the Department of the Interior's legal
opinion and enacting Public Law 103-150, commonly referred to as
the "Apology Resolution".  Other federal efforts sympathetic to
the Hawaiian people have included the return of Kaho'olawe in
1994 and the creation by the Office of Management and Budget of a
distinct category of Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders for federal
purposes.

     Your Committees believe that in order to comprehensively
resolve the longstanding issues over sovereignty and native
Hawaiian rights that have beleaguered the State, the federal
government, and most importantly, the Hawaiian people, the
federal government must recognize the sovereign rights of the
indigenous people of Hawaii to establish a governmental structure
of their own choosing.  Any attempt at a comprehensive solution
prior to such recognition would be at best, incomplete.

     Your Committees have amended the measure by:

     (1)  Recasting the "WHEREAS" clauses in the measure to focus
          on the need for the federal government to follow
          through on the commitments it made to the Native
          Hawaiian people pursuant to Public Law 103-150;

     (2)  Deleting some of the language contained in the "BE IT
          RESOLVED" clause to remove any reference to
          establishing a governmental relationship between the
          Hawaiian people and the federal government that is
          similar to that enjoyed by native Americans and native
          Alaskans; and


 
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     (3)  Adding the word "native" before the word "Hawaiian" in
          the title of the measure.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Water, Land, and Hawaiian Affairs and
Transportation and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to
this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose
of S.R. No. 45, as amended herein, and recommend that it be
referred to the Committee on Judiciary, in the form attached
hereto as S.R. No. 45, S.D. 1.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committees on Water, Land, and
                                   Hawaiian Affairs and
                                   Transportation and
                                   Intergovernmental Affairs,



____________________________       ______________________________
CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair                COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair

 
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