Will Dan Akaka introduce the existing version of S1011 or will he introduce the new version of S1011 modeled on the version of HR2314 which blew up in Neil Abercrombie's face yesterday?   

Committee meeting will not be webcast

ADV: Native Hawaiian bill moves ahead without revision that upset state

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, the bill's main sponsor, will decide whether to offer the amendment when the bill comes before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee today.

The sudden opposition by the Lingle administration, which has previously supported the Akaka bill, led to confusion about how the proposed changes were developed and questions about why the state was not fully consulted.

Abercrombie said on Tuesday night that he was surprised the state received the proposed changes only in the past few days.

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, issued an even stronger statement yesterday. "The events of the past 24 hours were totally unexpected," he said. "I was very surprised.

"I was not aware that the revisions to the bill being discussed between Sen. Akaka's office and President Obama's administration were not shared with Gov. Linda Lingle. I am in the process of trying to determine what happened and the best course forward."  (Did the Akaka staffers lie to Inouye, Abercrombie???)

Jesse Broder Van Dyke, a spokesman for Akaka, said the Obama administration worked on the draft of the proposed changes. The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the Native Hawaiian Bar Association also had input.   (It is hard to believe that the Obama Administration had input on this because the DoJ's point man on the Akaka Bill is a former Inouye staffer--he wouldn't have kept Inouye in the dark.)

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SENATE INDIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER “CARCIERI FIX,” NATIVE HAWAIIAN REORGANIZATION BILLS, CONDUCT HEARING ON COBELL SETTLEMENT

WASHINGTON D.C. -  (WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will consider two major bills on Thursday, December 17, and then conduct a congressional oversight hearing on the Cobell v Salazar settlement agreement. The business meeting and hearing will take place in Room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The committee will consider and vote on S. 1703, which reaffirms the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to take land into trust for Indian tribes. The legislation does not change how land is taken into trust. It simply reaffirms the Secretary of Interior’s right to do so on behalf of tribes. A February Supreme Court decision ruled that the Secretary’s authority to do so for tribes federally recognized after 1934 was questionable, something Congress never intended.

It will also consider S. 1011, legislation which would establish a formal relationship between the federal government and Native Hawaiians and provide a process for the recognition of a Native Hawaiian governing entity.

After the business meeting at which those two bills are acted upon, the committee will conduct a hearing on the settlement agreement in the Cobell v Salazar class action law suit. The long-litigated case seeks resolution of decades of Interior Department mismanagement of assets owned by Native Americans. Plaintiffs, the Interior Department and the Justice Department settled the suit on December 8, but Congress must approve that settlement before it is final.

Details follow:

• WHO:    Senators: U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Vice Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY), and others.   
• Witnesses: Ken Salazar,  Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior; David Hayes, Deputy Secretary,  U.S. Department of the Interior; Thomas J. Perrelli, Associate Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice;  Elouise Cobell, Lead Plaintiff, Cobell  v Salazar class action law suit.
• WHAT:    Business meeting to consider two bills: S 1703, which reaffirms the Secretary of Interior’s authority to accept land into trust for Native American tribes federally recognized after 1934; and S. 1011, the Native Hawaiian Reorganization Act.
• WHEN:    2:15 PM, Thursday, December 17, 2009
• WHERE:    628 Hart Senate Office Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.
• WHY:   To consider and vote on the two bills and to conduct a congressional oversight hearing on the Cobell v Salazar settlement agreement.