Hawaiian Home Lands Preservation Act
This bill reduces the minimum Native Hawaiian blood quantum required for successor homestead lessees and applicants on the waiting list for the Hawaiian Home Lands program.
[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9614 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 9614
To amend the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, to reduce the minimum
blood quantum for successor lessees and applicants on the Application
Waiting List, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 20, 2022
Mr. Kahele introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, to reduce the minimum
blood quantum for successor lessees and applicants on the Application
Waiting List, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Hawaiian Home Lands Preservation
Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds as follows:
(1) The United States of America and the State of Hawaii
have a fiduciary duty to support the rehabilitation of the
Hawaiian people, in part by ensuring long-term tenancies to
beneficiaries and successors of beneficiaries of the Hawaiian
Homes Commission Act, 1920.
(2) In advocating for the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act,
Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, the Territory of Hawaii's non-
voting delegate to Congress, anticipated future interracial
marriages of the Hawaiian people and originally advocated for a
blood quantum requirement of \1/32\ to perpetuate native
Hawaiian presence on the land. However, Delegate Kuhio
compromised for a 50 percent blood quantum requirement to get a
homestead lease as a necessary concession to powerful sugar and
ranching interests. At the time of the creation of the Hawaiian
Homes Commission Act, a \1/32\ blood quantum essentially meant
that anyone who had Hawaiian ancestry would qualify for the
Hawaiian homesteading program.
(3) Realizing that native Hawaiians were being quickly
displaced from their land due to interracial marriages the
State of Hawaii and the United States of America lowered the
blood quantum requirement for qualified lessee successors--
(A) to 25 percent for spouse and children on
October 27, 1986;
(B) to 25 percent for grandchildren on June 27,
1997; and
(C) to 25 percent for brothers and sisters on April
20, 2005.
(4) One hundred years later, many descendants of qualified
Hawaiian home lands beneficiaries do not qualify as successors
because interracial marriages and blended families produce
descendants who are less than 25 percent Hawaiian. These
disruptions create undue hardships of displacement and
interfere with families' abilities to maintain the equity of
their homes and businesses.
(5) Throughout the entire history of the Hawaiian Homes
Commission Act, as of December 31, 2021, less than 10,000
residential, agricultural, and pastoral leases have been issued
while a backlog of 46,307 lease applications held by 28,971
native Hawaiians remains.
(6) In 2020, the median age of an applicant on the
Application Waiting List was 59 years compared to 57 in 2014.
Further, in 2020, 35 percent of the applicants were over age 65
compared to 16 percent in 2003. The increase in the upper age
ranges have increased the median age of the applicants on the
Application Waiting List by two years. The urgency for
applicants to designate successors will only grow as the median
age of applicants on the Application Waiting List increases.
(7) Consistent with trust law and applicable State duties,
the government is required to explore and identify solutions
that are just and equitable for all beneficiaries, irrespective
of their leasehold standing.
(8) A reduction in blood quantum requirements for successor
lessees and applicants on the Application Waiting List is an
important step to continue access to the Hawaiian Home Lands
program and to prevent generationally held homestead leases
from being lost when elderly lessees or applicants on the
Application Waiting List, many of whom are older than 70 years
of age, die without a qualified successor.
SEC. 3. AMENDMENT TO THE HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSION ACT, 1920.
For the purposes of the requirements of section 4 of the Act
entitled ``An Act to provide for the admission of the State of Hawaii
into the Union'', approved March 18, 1959 (73 Stat. 4), the consent of
the United States shall be deemed to be granted with respect to an
amendment to Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, adopted by the State
of Hawaii in the manner required for State legislation, that amends
section 209 to read as follows:
``SEC. 209. SUCCESSORS TO LESSEES AND APPLICANTS ON THE APPLICATION
WAITING LIST.
``(a) Upon the death of the lessee, the lessee's interest in the
tract or tracts and the improvements thereon, including growing crops
and aquacultural stock (either on the tract or in any collective
contract or program to which the lessee is a party by virtue of the
lessee's interest in the tract or tracts), shall vest in the relatives
of the decedent as provided in this subsection. The lessee shall
designate the person or persons to whom the lessee directs the lessee's
interest in the tract or tracts to vest upon the lessee's death from
the following relatives of the lessee who are at least \1/32\ native
Hawaiian:
``(1) spouse, children, grandchildren, brothers, or
sisters;
``(2) a father and mother;
``(3) widows or widowers of the children;
``(4) widows or widowers of the brothers and sisters; or
``(5) nieces and nephews.
``(b) The Hawaiian blood requirements shall not apply to the
descendants of those who are not native Hawaiians, but who were
entitled to the leased lands under section 3 of the Act of May 16, 1934
(48 Stat. 777, 779) or under section 3 of the Act of July 9, 1952 (66
Stat. 511, 513).
``(c) In the case of the death of an applicant while on the
department's Application Waiting List, the position on the Application
Waiting List held by the applicant shall vest in the relatives of the
decedent as provided in this subsection. The applicant shall designate
the person in whom the position on the Application Waiting List shall
vest from the following relatives of the applicant who are at least \1/
32\ native Hawaiian:
``(1) spouse, children, grandchildren, brothers, or
sisters;
``(2) a father and mother;
``(3) widows or widowers of the children;
``(4) widows or widowers of the brothers and sisters; or
``(5) nieces and nephews.
``(d) Person or persons designated under subsection (a) or (c) are
not required to be 18 years of age or older. The designation shall be
in writing, may be specified at the time of execution of the lease with
a right in the lessee in similar manner to change the beneficiary at
any time and shall be filed with the department and approved by the
department in order to be effective to vest the interests in the
successor or successors so named.
``(e) Except as provided in subsection (b), in case of the death of
any lessee or applicant on the Application Waiting List, who has failed
to specify a successor or successors as approved by the department, the
department may select from only the following qualified relatives of
the decedent:
``(1) Spouse.
``(2) If there is no spouse, then the children.
``(3) If there is no spouse or child, then the
grandchildren.
``(4) If there is no spouse, child, or grandchild, then
brothers or sisters.
``(5) If there is no spouse, child, grandchild, brother, or
sister, then from the following relatives of the lessee--
``(A) father and mother;
``(B) widows or widowers of the children;
``(C) widows or widowers of the brothers and
sisters; or
``(D) nieces and nephews.
``(f) The rights to the use and occupancy of the tract or tracts
may be made effective as of the date of the death of the lessee. In the
case of the death of a lessee leaving no designated successor or
successors, spouse, children, grandchildren, or relative qualified to
be a lessee of Hawaiian home lands, the land subject to the lease shall
resume its status as unleased Hawaiian home lands and the department is
authorized to lease the land to a native Hawaiian as provided in this
Act.
``(g) Upon the death of a lessee who has not designated a successor
and who leaves a spouse not qualified to succeed to the lease or
children not qualified to succeed to the lease, or upon the death of a
lessee leaving no relative qualified to be a lessee of Hawaiian home
lands, or the cancellation of a lease by the department, or the
surrender of a lease by the lessee, the department shall appraise the
value of all the improvements and growing crops or improvements and
aquacultural stock, as the case may be, and shall pay to the non-
qualified spouse or the non-qualified children as the lessee shall have
designated prior to the lessee's death, or to the legal representative
of the deceased lessee, or to the previous lessee, as the case may be,
the value thereof, less any indebtedness to the department, or for
taxes, or for any other indebtedness the payment of which has been
assured by the department, owed by the deceased lessee or the previous
lessee.
``(h) Payments under subsection (g) shall be made out of the
Hawaiian home loan fund and shall be considered an advance therefrom
and shall be repaid by the successor or successors to the tract
involved. If available cash in the Hawaiian home loan fund is
insufficient to make these payments, payments may be advanced from the
Hawaiian home general loan fund and shall be repaid by the successor or
successors to the tract involved. Any repayment for advances made from
the Hawaiian home general loan fund shall be at the interest rate
established by the department for loans made from the Hawaiian home
general loan fund. The successor or successors may be required by the
commission to obtain private financing in accordance with section
208(6) to pay off the amount advanced from the Hawaiian home loan fund
or Hawaiian home general loan fund.''.
SEC. 4. SEVERABILITY CLAUSE.
This Act and the amendments made by this Act to the Hawaiian Homes
Commission Act, 1920, are declared to be severable. If any section,
sentence, clause, or phrase, or the application thereof to any person
or circumstance is held ineffective the remainder of the amendments or
the application thereof shall not be affected.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR H9915-9916)
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