Bill Text: HI SR59 | 2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Native Hawaiian Health Care; Federal Funding
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-03-29 - Report adopted, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM. [SR59 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2016-SR59-Amended.html
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THE SENATE |
S.R. NO. |
59 |
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TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016 |
S.D. 1 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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SENATE RESOLUTION
REQUESTING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO AMEND THE UNITED STATES CODE TO ENSURE THAT THE PROGRAMS AND SERVICES OF THE NATIVE HAWAIIAN HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENT ACT RECEIVE PERMANENT FUNDING.
WHEREAS, the Native Hawaiian Health Care Act of 1988, later renamed the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act, is a permanent federal law codified in title 42 United States Code chapter 122; and
WHEREAS, in the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act itself, the United States Congress states, among other findings, that:
(1) Native Hawaiians comprise a distinct and unique indigenous people with a historical continuity to the original inhabitants of the Hawaiian archipelago whose society was organized as a Nation prior to the arrival of the first nonindigenous people in 1778.
(2) The Native Hawaiian people are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territory, and their cultural identity in accordance with their own spiritual and traditional beliefs, customs, practices, language, and social institutions.
. . . .
(4) At the time of the arrival of the first nonindigenous people in Hawaii in 1778, the Native Hawaiian people lived in a highly organized, self-sufficient, subsistence social system based on communal land tenure with a sophisticated language, culture, and religion.
. . . .
(6) Throughout the 19th century and until 1893, the United States: (A) recognized the independence of the Hawaiian Nation; (B) extended full and complete diplomatic recognition to the Hawaiian Government; and (C) entered into treaties and conventions with the Hawaiian monarchs to govern commerce and navigation in 1826, 1842, 1849, 1875 and 1887.
(7) In the year 1893, the United States Minister assigned to the sovereign and independent Kingdom of Hawaii, John L. Stevens, conspired with a small group of non-Hawaiian residents of the Kingdom, including citizens of the United States, to overthrow the indigenous and lawful Government of Hawaii.
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(9) In a message to Congress on December 18, 1893, then President Grover Cleveland reported fully and accurately on these illegal actions, and acknowledged that by these acts, described by the President as acts of war, the government of a peaceful and friendly people was overthrown, and the President concluded that a "substantial wrong has thus been done which a due regard for our national character as well as the rights of the injured people required that we should endeavor to repair".
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(11) In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii through the Newlands Resolution without the consent of or compensation to the indigenous people of Hawaii or their sovereign government who were thereby denied the mechanism for expression of their inherent sovereignty through self-government and self-determination, their lands and ocean resources.
(12) Through the Newlands Resolution and the 1900 Organic Act, the United States Congress . . . [established] a special trust relationship between the United States and the inhabitants of Hawaii.
(13) In 1921, Congress enacted the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, which designated 200,000 acres of the ceded public lands for exclusive homesteading by Native Hawaiians, thereby affirming the trust relationship between the United States and the Native Hawaiians, as expressed by then Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane who was cited in the Committee Report of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Territories as stating, "One thing that impressed me . . . was the fact that the natives of the islands who are our wards, I should say, and for whom in a sense we are trustees, are falling off rapidly in numbers and many of them are in poverty".
. . . .
(15) Under the Act entitled "An Act to provide for the admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union", approved March 18, 1959 (73 Stat. 4), the United States transferred responsibility for the administration of the Hawaiian Home Lands to the State of Hawaii but reaffirmed the trust relationship which existed between the United States and the Hawaiian people by retaining the exclusive power to enforce the trust, including the power to approve land exchanges, and legislative amendments affecting the rights of beneficiaries under such Act.
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(18) In furtherance of the trust responsibility for the betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians, the United States has established a program for the provision of comprehensive health promotion and disease prevention services to maintain and improve the health status of the Hawaiian people.
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(22) Despite such services, the unmet health needs of the Native Hawaiian people are severe and the health status of Native Hawaiians continues to be far below that of the general population of the United States.
Title 42 United States Code section 11701; and
WHEREAS, the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act also states:
The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United States in fulfillment of its special responsibilities and legal obligations to the indigenous people of Hawaii resulting from the unique and historical relationship between the United States and the Government of the indigenous people of Hawaii—
(1) to raise the health status of Native Hawaiians to the highest possible health level; and
(2) to provide existing Native Hawaiian health care programs with all resources necessary to effectuate this policy.
Title 42 United States Code section 11702; and
WHEREAS, the codified language of the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act commits to provide funding for the programs and services of the Act only for specified fiscal years; and
WHEREAS, the Native Hawaiian Health Care Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-579) created codified language in title 42 United States Code chapter 122 that authorized appropriations for the programs and services of the Act for fiscal years 1990 through 1992, but was silent regarding funding for future fiscal years; and
WHEREAS, section 9168 of P.L. 102-396, enacted in 1992, gave the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act its current name and made several amendments to the Act, including codified language that "authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 1993 through 2001" for the programs and services of the Act, but was silent regarding funding for future fiscal years; and
WHEREAS, before 2010, title 42 United States Code chapter 122 was not amended to assure Native Hawaiians that funding for the programs and services of the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act would continue beyond fiscal year 2001; and
WHEREAS, while annual congressional budget acts for fiscal years 2002 to 2009 continued to authorize appropriations for the programs and services of the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act, stakeholders faced continued uncertainty regarding long-term funding during those years; and
WHEREAS, title 42 United States Code chapter 122 states, "There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary for fiscal years 1993 through 2019" for the programs and services of the Act, but was silent regarding funding for future fiscal years; and
WHEREAS, according to the United States Census Bureau's report, "The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population: 2010", the nation's Native Hawaiian population increased by 31.4 per cent between 2000 and 2010, and approximately fifty-five per cent of that population lives in Hawaii; and
WHEREAS, in 2013, the Department of Native Hawaiian Health of the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa published a report entitled "Assessment and Priorities for Health and Well-Being in Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Peoples", which found that Hawaii's Native Hawaiian population had a lower life expectancy than other populations, and had higher rates of death from heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and injuries compared to the State's overall population; and
WHEREAS, social determinants of health and other factors contribute to the continued health disparities that affect the Native Hawaiian population; and
WHEREAS, while the United States of America and the State of Hawaii have made strides toward improving the health of Native Hawaiians, long-term federal funding for necessary health programs and services remains at risk; and
WHEREAS, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act is intended to provide descendants of the indigenous people of the continental United States assistance with health services; and
WHEREAS, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act states in part that "[t]here are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this chapter for fiscal year 2010 and each fiscal year thereafter, to remain available until expended"; and
WHEREAS, Native Hawaiians should have the same assurance that other indigenous people in the United States have regarding federal funding for health programs and services; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, that the United States Congress is requested to amend the United States Code to ensure that the programs and services of the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act receive permanent funding; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Majority Leader of the United States Senate; the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; Hawaii's congressional delegation; the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Governor of the State of Hawaii; the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; the Mayor of each county in the State of Hawaii; the President of the Board of Directors of Papa Ola Lokahi; and the Chair of the Board of each Native Hawaiian health care system, as defined by the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act.
Native Hawaiian Health Care; Federal Funding
