LIHU’E – Sen. Daniel Akaka consulted other Hawai’i congressional members and his physicians before a decision was made to hold hearings on relationships between Hawaiians and the United States solely on Oahu this week, Akaka’s press secretary said. Because Akaka
LIHU’E – Sen. Daniel Akaka consulted other Hawai’i congressional members and his physicians before a decision was made to hold hearings on relationships between Hawaiians and the United States solely on Oahu this week, Akaka’s press secretary said.
Because Akaka is recovering from hip replacement surgery, he could not fly to the scheduled hearings on the neighbor islands, Paul Cardus said. “At no time did Sen. Akaka ask that the meetings be canceled or consolidated to one island,” Cardus said. After Akaka spoke with Sen. Daniel Inouye and House Rep. Neal Abercrombie, other federal legislators and members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Resources, it was decided that holding the hearings only on Oahu was a better alternative than to cancel the meetings altogether, Cardus said. Cardus said the announcement of the change didn’t come at the last moment. Akaka had gone through hip surgery on Oahu on Aug. 3 and consulted with doctors for many days last week on his condition before a decision on Aug. 24 that he not fly to meetings on the neighbor islands, Cardus said. Cardus said every effort was made to notify people about the change in the plans and to ensure everyone had ample opportunity to testify at the hearings or to submit testimony. For neighbor island residents who couldn’t fly to Oahu today, the house and senate committees made provisions to take their testimony at another time during the week, Cardus said. During the start of hearings in Honolulu yesterday, up to 25 Kauaians testified before the committees, Cardus said. They included Kaua’i resident Kane Pa, a representative of Lawful Hawaiian Government, which advocates that the Hawaiian monarchy is intact. “No one was gaveled out of order, and all were given five full minutes and more,” Cardus said. Some Hawaiians on Kaua’i had complained that it wasn’t necessary for Akaka to attend the neighbor island meetings to receive testimony, and that his representatives can do that job. Cardus said the Senate and House committees, which are conducting the meetings, felt it was important that Akaka be at the neighbor island meetings because he authored the federal bill. Serious consideration was not given to holding teleconference meetings on a neighbor island because of logistics, Cardus said, although teleconferencing equipment is used at Kaua’i Community College. “There is also a question of whether teleconferencing is acceptable under House and Senate rules,” Cardus said. The congressional hearings in Hawai’i will be at the Neal Blaisdell Center in Honolulu from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Friday. The proposed legislation proposes an office of Native Hawaiian Affairs with the Department of Interior. The bill would also designate Department of Justice representatives to help implement programs protecting the rights of Native Hawaiians. The legislation also would allow Native Hawaiians to create a native governing body that would be recognized as sovereign by the U.S. The committees want to complete the hearings and return to Washington, D.C., where the House and the Senate will reconvene Sept. 6.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or [ HREF=”mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net”>lchang@pulitzer.net]
