WASHINGTON — Congress began deliberations Thursday on the “Akaka Bill,” which would create a process for Native Hawaiian self-governance, as Hawaii’s congressional delegation sought to confront arguments that the legislation is “race-based.”

The bill, written by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, would develop a process for reorganizing a Native Hawaiian government. If passed, the legislation could reshape the political landscape in Hawaii, giving Native Hawaiians virtually the same rights conferred on American Indians and Native Alaskans.
Eventually, it could give Native Hawaiians greater control over their highly valuable ancestral lands.
“The Native Hawaiian people are an indigenous people — this is not race-based legislation,” Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, told the House Natural Resources Committee at a Thursday morning hearing. The panel could have the first vote on the legislation in coming weeks.
Hirono kicked off what looks to be a summer of debate over an issue with potential racial, political and financial overtones.
The hearing came on King Kamehameha Day, a state holiday in Hawaii in honor of the warrior-king who unified the Hawaiian people.
The Akaka Bill’s mostly Republican opponents — who have quashed the legislation in the past — face a Democrat-controlled Congress and a Hawaii-raised president who has vowed to sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
Still, opponents of the 9-year-old legislation that has changed shape several times are mounting their arguments, contending that the bill challenges the American principle of equality and opens doors to political volatility among Native Hawaiians.
In 2006, the Justice Department under President George W. Bush argued the Akaka Bill would “divide people by their race.”
“It is clear that many ethnic Hawaiians will not regard the new government as deriving its powers solely from federal delegation,” said Gail Heroit, a Republican appointee on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. “Rather, they will argue that it derives its power from their own inherent sovereignty and is thus not subject to any of the limitations on power found in the U.S. Constitution.”
At stake, in addition to the political future of the Native Hawaiian people, ultimately is control over some 1.8 million acres of land that many Native Hawaiians believe was taken from them illegally in the United States’ annexation of Hawaii in 1898.
Passage of the Akaka bill would provide for negotiations on the disposition of Native Hawaiian land, natural resources and other assets.
Rep Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, drove the financial point of the debate home in Thursday’s hearing when he said opponents of the Akaka bill have their eyes fixed more on some of the nation’s most prized Pacific real estate than on any legal issues.
“This has nothing to do with the Constitution,” said Abercrombie, who is running for governor and who sponsored the Akaka legislation in the House. “It has to do with the land.”
It has to do with the Senate as well.
Originally proposed in 2000, the Akaka bill has been passed repeatedly in the House but has hit walls in the Senate, where single lawmakers can hold up bills at will.
The Senate has not yet scheduled a hearing on the legislation.
The Akaka bill’s first test in that chamber would be before the Indian Affairs Committee, where Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, is a senior member.
The legislation came closest to passing in 2007 when it cleared the full House, but it was never brought to the Senate floor for a vote.
The delegation reintroduced the 2007 version several weeks ago.
This version contains a provision barring any new Native Hawaiian government from authorizing gambling. The provision was included to ease fears that newly empowered Native Hawaiians would set up gambling operations. But gambling already is illegal in Hawaii.
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Contact John Yaukey at jyaukey@gannett.com.