The following is an excerpt from testimony given before the Hawai'i Advisory Committee to the United States Civil Rights Commission on Aug. 20.

The Akaka bill is fair, equitable, just, constitutional and long overdue. It affords formal federal recognition to Native Hawaiians — a recognition that has been extended for decades to other Native Americans and Alaska Natives. It will have the effect of preserving existing programs for Native Hawaiians, and provides for future negotiations between the United States, the state of Hawai'i, and representatives of Native Hawaiians. These negotiations could, for example, provide for the transfer to a Native Hawaiian governing entity of the assets that are currently held in trust by OHA (the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs), for the benefit of Native Hawaiians.

Contrary to its critics' claims, the Akaka bill does not allow gambling, provide for secession or anything like it, give anyone immunity from civil suits or criminal prosecution, create or recognize land claims, or provide any tax benefits or detriments.

The Akaka bill has strong bipartisan support, including from Gov. Lingle and Lt. Gov. Aiona, almost every state legislator, and our mayors and county councils. It has this support because it is fair and just on every level, as there is no principled or historical reason to treat Native Hawaiians as second-class compared to America's other native peoples.

To those who claim the bill sanctions illegal race-based preferences, I say nonsense, and point first to the 1959 Hawai'i State Admission Act, in which the Congress both prohibited any provision in the Hawai'i Constitution "repugnant to the Constitution of the United States," and required the Hawai'i Constitution to provide specific benefits and protections to Native Hawaiians.

Congress could not, would not and did not condition Hawai'i's entry into the Union on Hawai'i's violating the U.S. Constitution. Nor has the Congress acted unconstitutionally for almost a century in passing more than 100 acts for the benefit of Native Hawaiians. Indeed, never, in the more than two centuries of the republic, has the Supreme Court struck down the recognition of an aboriginal people by the Congress — and it would not do so here.

Those who use legal arguments to attack the bill do so to mask their real goal — eliminating any benefits or recognition for or to any of America's native people, regardless of the wrongs that have been committed against them. And those same individuals are those who have sued (so far unsuccessfully) to terminate all programs that benefit Native Hawaiians. They wish, for example, to end the Hawaiian Homes program, and to end education and health benefits that are specifically directed to Native Hawaiians. We have fought against those attacks and will continue to do so.

Native Hawaiians do not seek special or privileged treatment. Native Hawaiians simply seek a status equal to that of other Native Americans, and that is why I and so many others support the Akaka bill.

Mark Bennett is the state attorney general.