Bill Text: HI HR111 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urging The United States Department Of The Interior To Work With The Office Of The Governor, Department Of Hawaiian Home Lands, United States Congressional Delegations From Hawaii, And Sovereign Council Of Hawaiian Homestead Associations To Make A Determination In Support Of Act 80, Session Laws Of Hawaii 2017.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-03-13 - Referred to JHA, FIN, referral sheet 21 [HR111 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2024-HR111-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	111
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

Urging the United States Department of the Interior to work with the Office of the Governor, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, United States congressional delegations from Hawaii, and Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations to make a determination in support of Act 80, Session Laws of Hawaii 2017.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, as amended (HHCA), enables native Hawaiians to return to their lands in order to fully support self-sufficiency, self-determination, and the preservation of the values, traditions, and culture of native Hawaiians; and

 

     WHEREAS, the HHCA created a land trust to enable displaced native Hawaiian people to lease residential, agriculture, or pastoral homestead land from the trust for one dollar per year; and

 

     WHEREAS, in the years following the Territory of Hawaii joining the United States in 1959, the State promised to take responsibility for managing these lands and supporting native Hawaiian people through ensuring the perpetuation of the HHCA; and

 

     WHEREAS, native Hawaiians who meet the fifty per cent blood quantum are eligible for the Hawaiian Home Lands program; and

 

     WHEREAS, further, the reduction prevents generationally held homestead leases from being lost when elderly lessees or wait list beneficiaries, many of whom are older than seventy years of age, die without a qualified successor; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 2017 the State of Hawaii Legislature enacted Act 80, which amends the HHCA to lower the minimum required Hawaiian blood quantum from one quarter to one thirty-second; and

 

     WHEREAS, because the amendment to the HHCA made by Act 80 changes the qualification of leases, the Department of the Attorney General determined that it requires consent of the United States Congress and is not effective until the United States gives its consent; and

 

     WHEREAS, before a State-proposed amendment to the HHCA is transmitted for congressional consent, the Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior must review the amendment, make a determination as to whether the amendment requires congressional approval, and submit the amendment to the United States Congress for approval if consent is required; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 2018, in accordance with the procedure outlined above, the United States Department of the Interior sent a set of questions and data requests to the State in order to conduct a preliminary assessment of Act 80; and

 

     WHEREAS, the United States Department of the Interior noted that the State’s failure to conduct further reviews or supply data has impeded its timely analysis of Act 80; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 2022, based on the information provided by the State, the Solicitor of the United States Department of the Interior completed the preliminary assessment and issued a determination that the Department cannot endorse the amendments proposed by Act 80 due to the inequitable effects on beneficiaries and their successors; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2024, that the United States Department of the Interior is urged to work with the Office of the Governor, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, United States congressional delegations from Hawaii, and Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations to make a determination in support of Act 80; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the United States Department of the Interior is urged to directly engage with the State of Hawaii and Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations to request additional information and data to move Act 80 forward; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the United States Congress is urged to give its consent to Act 80 to lower the minimum required Hawaiian blood quantum from one quarter to one thirty-second; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the United States Secretary of the Interior, members of the Hawaii congressional delegation, Governor, Chairperson of the Department of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Chair of the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

United States Department of the Interior; Act 80; Hawaiian Blood Quantum