WASHINGTON – The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, popularly known as the Akaka Bill, was approved by the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs, and will move on to a full Senate vote in the New Year.

The Senate bill – S. 1011 – included new language proposed by the Obama administration to address concerns about the legislation’s constitutionality. Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle and Attorney General Mark Bennett, who have been longtime supporters of his effort, opposed the language, saying the changes stripped away language ensuring that the state’s rights and interests were protected.

The SCIA passed the bill unanimously Dec. 17. Hawaii’s senators, both Democrats, applauded the move.

“The bill provides for a structured process of reconciliation for both Native Hawaiians and non-Native Hawaiians to finally address and resolve longstanding issues resulting from Hawaii’s painful history,” said Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, author of the bill.

“I am extremely pleased with the acceptance of this bill by the committee. This bill will now be placed on the Senate calendar,” said Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.

A day before the Senate passage, the House Natural Resources Committee passed H.R. 2314, the House companion bill, by a vote of 26-13 without the amendment approved in the Senate.

Earlier in the week, Hawaiian sovereignty supporters to protest what they said were “back door” efforts by Hawaii’s senators to insert the Akaka Bill into a federal appropriations bill.

Inouye issued a statement denying the rumor.

“(The bill) It has had hours upon hours of hearings, many, many revisions and amendments and has gone through the scrutiny of three administrations. We have had hearings in Washington and in Hawaii. It is not a measure that has been shepherded in the dark of the night. It has been fully transparent,” Inouye said in a statement.

Hawaii’s congressional delegates have tried to pass some version of the Akaka Bill for almost 10 years. The latest version would authorize a process for establishing a Native Hawaiian governing entity and would grant the equivalent of federal recognition to Native Hawaiians, allowing them to be treated on par with American Indians and Alaska Natives – except the bill would not allow gaming, create reservation trust land, give back any of the land that Congress, in a 1993 Apology Resolution, acknowledged was illegally seized from Native Hawaiians without legislative approval, or change any existing laws.

The bill, in essence, would authorize a process to talk about creating a Native Hawaiian governing entity that would negotiate with the United States and the State of Hawaii over the transfer of lands, civil and criminal issues, and grievances by the Native Hawaiian community.

While the Bush administration opposed the Akaka Bill, the Obama administration endorsed the bill at a SCIA meeting in August.

Supporters of the bill were happy about that, believing the administration’s support would provide the impetus for its passage.

But throughout the 10 years of hearings and revisions, representatives of Hawaii’s sovereignty movement have not been invited to participate in the debate.

The sovereignty movement seeks full independence from the United States based on decolonization and de-occupation under international law.

At the heart of the issue is control and ownership of Hawaiian land – some of the most valuable land in the world.

The Apology Resolution signed into law in 1993 acknowledged the illegality of the U.S. government’s military-backed regime change of “the sovereign Hawaii nation” in 1893 and its support for the illegally created “provisional government” in violation of treaties and international law. The insurgents were wealthy American and European financiers and colonists who owned sugar plantations.

The key statement in the apology reiterates Hawaii’s continuing independence: “The indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States, either through their monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum.”

The Akaka Bill would extinguish the indigenous Hawaiian people’s sovereignty and land claims.