WASHINGTON — Hawaii will have to wait a little longer for its memorial to the thousands of people who contracted leprosy and were exiled to Molokai's Kalaupapa Peninsula.

The legislation establishing the memorial — introduced by Rep. Mazie Hirono — was part of a massive public lands bill that failed to pass the House of Representatives today.

The bill failed mainly because of concerns over restrictions it placed on energy exploration on some of the protected tracts on the mainland.

The Kalaupapa memorial — which was to be located in the Kalaupapa National Historical Park — had nothing to do with the objections to the legislation.

The bill required a two-thirds majority in the House for procedural reasons. It fell two votes short. It's not clear yet how the House might take it up again.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed the lands package, 73-21, in January.

The memorial would have listed the names of about 8,000 people who were sent to Kalaupapa between 1866, when patients were taken from their families, and 1969, when mandatory isolation was ended.

About 6,700 of the victims were buried at Kalaupapa in unmarked graves.

Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa, a group of Hansen's disease patients, relatives and friends, would have been responsible for the memorial's cost.

But the interior secretary would have final approval of the monument's design, size, inscriptions and location.