Hawaii State Senate Passes SB 1085

Media contacts:
Derek Kauanoe kupuaina@gmail.com
Davis Price kupuaina@gmail.com

For Immediate Release:
March 10, 2009


State Senate Passes “Ceded” Lands Moratorium Bill

HONOLULU, HI -- Today, the Hawai‘i Senate passed Senate Bill 1085, which places a 5-year moratorium on the sale of ceded lands and provides a process for the sale of “ceded” lands after the moratorium is no longer in effect.

SB 1085 was passed with 24 votes with 1 senator voting against it.

SB 1085 will now go to the Hawai‘i State House of Representatives.

Last week, SB 1677, which was also passed out of the Senate and crossed over to the House of Representatives, passed the House Hawaiian Affairs committee. SB 1677, does not provide a moratorium but instead requires a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and the Senate for “ceded” lands sales.

Derek Kauanoe, speaking for the Kupu‘āina Coalition, described SB 1085 as a bill that “is good for all of Hawai‘i generally. While SB 1085 acknowledges the unrelinquished claims of Native Hawaiians, it also provides a comprehensive process to protect the ceded lands for the general public.” Kauanoe continued to explain, “unlike the continental United States, in Hawai‘i, we have limited natural resources such as land. SB 1085 provides a process to ensure that proposed transfers of lands will be used for important purposes only. This process goes into effect when the moratorium is over.”

The Kupu‘āina Coalition is an organization, of current law school students and recent law school graduates of the William S. Richardson School of Law, that is dedicated towards the protection of “ceded” lands.