U.S. Rep Kai Kahele has introduced a bill to reduce the Native Hawaiian blood quantum required for those wanting to succeed relatives who currently have a lease from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands or are on the application waiting list.
The legislation introduced on Tuesday by the Hawaii Democrat is titled the Hawaiian Home Lands Preservation Act. The measure is being referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. If adopted, it would amend Section 209 of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 to allow existing lessees or an applicant on the DHHL application wait list to designate a qualified relative who has at least 1/32 blood quantum as a successor beneficiary.
Currently an applicant for a new Hawaiian Home Lands lease must have a 50% blood quantum, while a qualified successor applicant is required to have 25% Hawaiian blood.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Kahele said the bill’s intent is to “right the wrong perpetuated against the Native Hawaiian people and address the inequity that exists in current law.”
In a brief speech Tuesday on the House floor, Kahele told lawmakers the bill is “critical legislation for the preservation, protection and restoration of the sovereign rights of the Native Hawaiian people.”
He noted that Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana‘ole, then Hawaii’s nonvoting delegate to Congress, originally envisioned a 1/32 blood quantum to qualify for a homestead lease, but was “forced to compromise with Western powerful sugar and business interests by accepting a blood quantum requirement of 50% to qualify for a lease.”
“This requirement would serve as a poison pill in the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, dividing Native Hawaiians — a divide that remains to this day,” Kahele told his colleagues.
“One hundred years later, due to interracial marriages and blended families, many descendants of beneficiaries do not meet the 25% requirement for successorship,” he continued. “In addition, the failure of both the state of Hawaii and the United States to meet its fiduciary, execution, management and oversight of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act has resulted in less than 10,000 Native Hawaiians being awarded a lease, while an applicant wait list of almost 29,000 exists until this day.”
Hawaii County Council member See Lee Loy represents District 3 which is comprised of portions of both Hilo and Puna. A homesteader who lives in Pana‘ewa, she said Wednesday there’s a need for “a pathway to either chip away at the wait list and/or allow beneficiaries to pass on their leases to more Native Hawaiians.”
Lee Loy noted that $600 million to develop housing was appropriated this past state legislative session to DHHL and signed into law by then-Gov. David Ige.
“They can actually fund more opportunities for housing, but we’ve got a lot of people on the wait list,” Lee Loy said. “And we know the stories about how many have died there and if they could’ve passed it on or had a successor take their place on the list.”
The state Legislature in 2017 passed Act 80, which would amend the HHCA by reducing the successorship qualification of a lessee’s spouse, children, grandchildren and brothers or sisters from 25% to 1/32 Hawaiian. That law requires congressional consent, however, to be enacted — and resolutions this past state legislative session urged Congress to do so.
DHHL/Hawaiian Homes Commission Chairman William Aila Jr. submitted testimony in support of one of those measures, Senate Current Resolution 165.
“We continue to receive requests from beneficiaries, particularly lessees in our older homestead communities, to reduce the blood quantum requirement for successors. As these communities age, the lessees with one-quarter Hawaiian blood are facing the possible loss of a homestead lease that has been within the family for several generations because their descendants lack the required blood quantum,” Aila testified.
Kahele noted in his legislation that the current median age for a wait list applicant is 59.
“As the applicant wait list grows, the median average age of an applicant age grows, creating a sense of urgency as thousands have died on the wait list,” Kahele said in his floor speech. “Thousands more will die on the wait list, never fulfilling the true vision of Prince Kuhio to ‘aina ho‘opulapula, or return Native Hawaiians to their land.”
Kahele lost a gubernatorial primary election battle in August to new Gov. Josh Green, and the Hawaii 2nd Congressional District seat he’s vacating will soon be occupied by former state Sen. Jill Tokuda.
“With the 117th Congress coming to an end in just 13 days, it is my sincere hope that the 118th Congress will address this important issue and that an emerging new generation of Native Hawaiian political leaders will elevate this and the myriad of other issues that continue to suppress and harm the Native Hawaiian community,” Kahele said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.