COMMENTARY
Akaka bill lobbying is part of OHA's mandate
By Clyde W. Namu'o
The Advertiser's recent front-page story on OHA's Akaka bill lobbying expenditures needs to be viewed in the context of the broader picture.
For the past several years, trustees of the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs have unanimously agreed that federal recognition for Native Hawaiians is the best way to counter the ongoing legal attacks that seek to strip Hawaiians of their existing programs and assets.
If they succeed, these lawsuits would spell disaster not only for Native Hawaiians, but for the people of Hawai'i as a whole, who would have to find some other means to provide for the disadvantaged members of the community who have benefited from a whole host of social service initiatives that would likely be lost. In addition, approximately $50 million to $70 million a year would be lost in federal funding.
For this reason, the trustees consider it their duty to OHA's beneficiaries and the community as a whole to devote substantial fiscal resources toward encouraging the passage of a Hawaiian federal recognition measure in Congress. They do this not only in the name of the Native Hawaiian trust they are charged with safeguarding and the services that OHA provides, but also for the many Hawaiian entities that could suffer if the "race-based" lawsuits were to succeed.
No other trust or organization serving Hawaiians has the mandate to advocate on behalf of Native Hawaiians in public policy matters as OHA does, but they all stand to lose if federal recognition is not achieved.
Given what's at stake, it is inappropriate to compare the money OHA has expended on lobbying for the Akaka bill to the amount spent by the University of Hawai'i on funding issues or private companies to promote their commercial interests. More to the point: The amount OHA has spent on the Akaka bill pales in comparison to the amount it has expended on initiatives that benefit not only Hawaiians but everyone in the state. In the past year alone, OHA has allocated:
It is incorrect to think of Akaka bill lobbying efforts as having failed because the bill has not yet passed. Federal legislation often takes multiple congressional sessions to succeed, and the trustees consider their lobbying expenditures to be a long-term investment in the bill's eventual passage. It's important to note that more than half of the 100 U.S. senators voted in favor of bringing the bill to the floor in last August's procedural cloture vote. If the vote had been by simple majority instead of the 60 percent required to overcome the procedural blocks that opponents have long used to stymie the bill, the measure would have passed. And with the new Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, the bill's chances for the coming year are looking more positive than ever.
Finally, since the article mentioned $900,000 in funds used by OHA's Washington, D.C., office, it should be noted that that amount covers not only Akaka bill matters, but the work that our Washington staff has done on a wide variety of other projects, including educating federal officials on issues important to Native Hawaiians; monitoring other legislation affecting Hawaiians in a range of areas, from education, health and economic development to burial-site protection and the perpetuation of indigenous languages; Northwestern Hawaiian Islands protection and other environmental issues; advocating for Hawaiian interests in consultations with such agencies as the Department of Defense and the Census Bureau; building relationships with national indigenous and civil rights organizations; and acting as liaison to many Hawaiian organizations in the eastern states.
We hope that your readers will understand that in this day and age, it takes the expenditure of considerable funds to advocate for legislative action at the federal level. OHA's trustees have elected to make this commitment based on what they truly believe is the best interest of the Native Hawaiian community and all those who care for our special island home. As Gov. Linda Lingle has said time and again, what is good for Native Hawaiians is good for Hawai'i.
Clyde W. Namu'o is administrator of the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.
