Bill Text: HI SB2212 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Hawaiian Homes Commission Act; Community Based Governance

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-03-14 - (H) The committee(s) on HAW recommend(s) that the measure be deferred. [SB2212 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2212-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2713

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2212

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2212 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSION ACT, 1920, AS AMENDED,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to repeal the congressional consent requirement for amendments made to the provision relating to community based governance on Hawaiian home lands.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, the Waianae Valley Homestead Community Association, and two private individuals.  Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by two private individuals.  The Department of the Attorney General submitted comments.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure allows the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the homestead associations to implement the partnerships originally encouraged and intended by the Legislature without congressional consent.  Act 302, Session Laws of Hawaii 2001, amended the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, as amended, to include two new sections, one of which relate to community based governance on Hawaiian home lands.  The purpose of Act 302 is to promote increased self-governance by Hawaiian homestead community organizations over the affairs of their distinct native communities on Hawaiian home lands.  However, Act 302 is effective only after it is approved by Congress, which has not yet occurred.

 

     The Department of the Attorney General indicated to your Committee that simply repealing the congressional approval prerequisite would not effectively lift the congressional consent requirement under Act 302, Session Laws of Hawaii 2001.  Additionally, the Department of Attorney General indicated that to effectuate the legislative amendment without congressional approval, the amendment must fall within certain exceptions stated in the Admission Act.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting its contents and replacing it with language proposed by the Department of the Attorney General that:

 

          (A)  Enacts community based governance as a new section to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act as intended by Act 302, Session Laws of Hawaii 2001; and

 

          (B)  Includes provisions that would exempt the amendment from the federal consent requirement; and

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to ensure further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2212, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2212, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

		____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair