Hawaiian Home Lands Preservation Act
Bill: H.R.9614 | Sponsor: Rep. Kahele, Kaiali'i (D-HI)
Policy area: Native Americans

Summary:
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.

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.
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