House Bill 1667 and Senate Bill 1085 pass out of committees today.

At 9am this morning, the House Committee on Hawaiian Affairs had a hearing on a number of bills including House Bill 1667 and heard testimony. The first person to give Testimony was the Attorney General Mark Bennett. In the photo to the left you can see Committee Chair Representative Mele Carroll, to her left is Committee Vice-Chair Representative Maile Shimabukuro, and to the left of Maile is Representative Gene Ward. Attorney General Mark Bennett was the first to give testimony. Shortly after him, University of Hawai'i law professor Jon Van Dyke (and OHA attorney) provided oral testimony as well while countering comments made by Mark Bennett. The committee brought the two opposing attorneys back together with Clyde Namu'o (OHA Administrator) for some questions. If you watch the brief 3 minute video below, you'll hear Representative Gene Ward describe the debate between these two as a Lincoln Douglas debate.

At any rate, House Bill 1667 passed the Hawaiian Affairs Committee unanimously without any changes to the language of the bill.

A good number of people submitted testimony for House Bill 1667. You can read the testimony by clicking here. If you click here, you can see the "late" testimony.

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WATER, LAND, AGRICULTURE AND HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Today at 2:45, Senator Clayton Hee called the hearing of the Water, Land, Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs Committee to order. To the right is a photo with Committee Chair Senator Clayton Hee and Vice-Chair Senator Jill Tokuda. The hearing included a discussion on Senate Bill 1085 that provides a moratorium on the sale of ceded lands.
The Attorney General Mark Bennett provided testimony again first. Attorney Sherry Broder, the "lead" attorney for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs also gave testimony. Republican Senator Fred Hemmings asked some very "interesting" questions of both Sherry Broder and former Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Chairman Kali Watson. Despite Senator Hemmings questions, the committee passed Senate Bill 1085. Unlike its House Bill counter-part however, SB 1085 was passed with amendments.

Watch the Vote

There were some younger generation folks out there today who also gave oral testimony to the committee.
- Brandee Aukai (and her two keiki),
- Kelly Anne Beppu, and
- Kanoe D. Enos.

Brandee, Kelly Anne, and Kanoe are graduate students at the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work. All three social work students also submitted written testimony. Click here to read written testimony. To read the "late" testimony, click here.

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We need everyone to both call and e-mail this guy!


This is Senator Brian Taniguchi. Senator Taniguchi is the Chairperson for the Judiciary and Government Operations Committee.

We need Senator Taniguchi to have a committee hearing on Senate Bill 1085, which is a moratorium bill on ceded lands. We need a committee hearing on Senate Bill 1085 by February 20, 2009 but no later than February 27.

You can call Senator Taniguchi at 586-6460. E-mail can be sent to sentaniguchi@capitol.hawaii.gov

Phone calls and e-mails should be in a civil and polite tone. The first sentence in an e-mail should read, "Please have a hearing on Senate Bill 1085 by February 20, 2009" or "I request a hearing on Senate Bill 1085 before the end of the month.")

If you do not know what to say in a phone call, click here to get a sample phone script.