House version of OHA bill: ‘Not a settlement’

Three committees of the state House of Representatives will hold a hearing Saturday morning on a very different version of the OHA settlement bill. HB 266 HD 1, released into the public today, alters the terms of the debate by not treating the recent agreement between the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Governor Lingle as a settlement, but as a "joint policy recommendation."

As such, the new bill does not include a broad 'waiver of claims' section.

The new bill raises a question, though: will OHA and the Executive Branch agree to this new bill? The two parties had been very willing to give up legal rights in order to accomplish the transfer of lands and money to OHA; without the quo, will they accept the quid?

-----