Opinion: Native Hawaiian recognition a bad bill

Thursday, January 18, 2007  

The author of this opinion is Peter Kirsanow, a Bush administration appointee who sits on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which recommended against Native Hawaiian recognition, and the National Labor Relations Board, which is fighting tribes over sovereignty.

"The worst piece of legislation ever analyzed by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has been brought back from the dead and may be enacted in the next few weeks.

On Wednesday, Senator Daniel Akaka reintroduced the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, also known as the Akaka Bill.

The bill died in the Senate last June when the administration came out against it. Assistant Attorney General William Moschella wrote then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that “[t]he Administration strongly opposes passage of [the Akaka Bill]. As noted recently by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the bill risks ‘further subdivid(ing) the American people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege.’ As the President has said, ‘we must…honor the great American tradition of the melting pot, which has made us one nation out of many peoples."

The bill was a terrible idea seven months ago. Nothing’s changed to make it more acceptable today."

Get the Story:
Peter Kirsanow: Disunited States (The National Review Online 1/18)

Relevant Links:
Office of Hawaiian Affairs - http://www.oha.org

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