State may lose $40M in funding
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer
Some $40 million in annual funding for Native Hawaiian programs is on the laundry list of areas that conservative Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are recommending be chopped from the federal budget to help offset the enormous cost of aid to Hurricane Katrina victims.
But Hawai'i's congressional delegation, taking their lead from House Republican leaders, do not appear to be taking the threatened loss in funding too seriously.
The $40 million in annual appropriations go toward "various health and educational programs for Native Hawaiians," according to the Republican Study Committee's "Operation Offset."
All told, the report released last week calls for cuts of $70.7 billion in fiscal 2006 and $526 billion over 10 years in everything from public transportation to endowments for the arts.
In justifying the cut in Native Hawaiian funding, the report states "Native Hawaiians are a racial group, not a tribe, and dispensing benefits to them would likely be subject to strict scrutiny in federal courts."
Supporters of the so-called Akaka bill — which would establish an independent Native Hawaiian government entity and reaffirm the relationship between the federal government and Native Hawaiians that existed before annexation — think it would stop assaults on Hawaiians-only programs such as what's being proposed in Operation Offset.
The Akaka bill has been stalled in Congress, largely as a result of arguments made by conservative interests that the legislation is race-based.
Staff with Hawai'i's congressional delegation, who oppose eliminating the Native Hawaiian funding, said they are monitoring the progress of Operation Offset, but note it is has not received a warm reception, not even by GOP leaders in the House.
Michael Slackman, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, pointed out that none of the proposals have surfaced in any bill before Congress.
"The Republican Study Group is one faction of the Republican Party in the House," Slackman said. "And they are on the more extreme, conservative end of the spectrum."
Nonetheless, Slackman said, "Anytime anyone takes programs that are of particular importance to the constituents of your state and puts them on a list for elimination and publishes it, you keep an eye on what they're doing."
The cut in Native Hawaiian funding is just one of dozens of suggestions on the list. Among some of the other proposals:
Ken Conklin, a researcher for the group Aloha for All, said he supports the notion of eliminating funding for programs designed to help Native Hawaiians exclusively. "It's both illegal and immoral to have racially exclusionary programs," Conklin said.
The likelihood of Operation Offset and its suggestions becoming law are slim, he acknowledged. However, Conklin said he is heartened that such programs are now on the radar of those who may be empathetic to his cause, and he credited the attention being given to the Akaka bill.
"I don't think that Native Hawaiian programs would have been on such a list if it were not for the Akaka bill being pushed forth so aggressively," he said.
Clyde Namu'o, administrator of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said elimination of the funding would deliver a crippling blow to programs essential for maintaining the well-being and culture of Hawaiians.
"Our position is, given the dire plight of many of our local Hawaiian programs, to take away federal support could terminate some of these programs and we certainly would be opposed to that," Namu'o said.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.
