A conference committee vote on Tuesday advanced a measure that would allow nieces and nephews to inherit Hawaiian homesteads, keeping ancestral land within extended families.
HONOLULU (CN) – Hawaii lawmakers on Tuesday moved a step closer to expanding who can inherit Native Hawaiian homestead leases, passing a compromise version of legislation that supporters say will prevent trust land from slipping out of families’ hands for lack of a qualified heir.
The committee quickly approved the Conference 1 draft House Bill 2309. All eight members — five from the House and three from the Senate — voted in favor. Now it goes to the top floor votes in both chambers.
Representative David Tarnas, chairman of the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, opened the meeting by promoting the bill.
“This is a very important measure,” he said. “It amends the Hawaii Housing Commission Act as amended to include children of siblings as qualifying relatives of tenants for purposes of lease transfer and leasehold inheritance, the same way currently allowed for spouses, children, grandchildren, and siblings.”
The House conferences were chaired by Tarnas and co-chair Representative Matthias Kusch, with Representatives Kirstin Kahaloa, Mahina Poepoe and Diamond Garcia serving as moderators. The Senate side was chaired by Senator Tim Richards III, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, with Senator Mike Gabbard co-chairing and Senator Samantha DeCorte as moderators.
Enacted in 1920 as a form of restitution for Native Hawaiians displaced from their ancestral lands, the Hawaiian Home Commission Act designated approximately 200,000 acres throughout the islands for a homestead program.
Leases are issued at a nominal rent of $1 per year. The program aims to restore Native Hawaiians’ connection to the land. Because federal law tightly regulates it, the rules of inheritance carry great weight: They determine whether that bond lasts from generation to generation, or ends when a tenant dies without a legally qualified heir.
Under current law, home rentals in Hawaii can only be transferred or transferred to the tenant’s spouse, children, grandchildren, or siblings, all subject to blood quantum requirements. House Bill 2309 would add nieces and nephews to that list, allowing tenants to designate a sibling’s child as a descendant at the one-quarter Native Hawaiian blood quantum threshold.
The Department of Hawaiian Native Lands, which administers the home program, submitted written testimony in support of the measure. Some tenant beneficiaries, the department noted, have no qualifying relatives among those currently listed and have expressed a desire to transfer their tenancies to Native Hawaiian nieces or nephews. Without a change in the law, those rents could be returned to the state.
“This measure simply allows an expanded opportunity to keep beneficiary rentals within beneficiary households,” wrote Kali Watson, chairwoman of the Hawaii Housing Commission, in testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs also submitted testimony in support, saying the bill reflects the practical realities of Native Hawaiian family life.
“OHA supports this measure because it expands acceptable legacies and reflects the lived reality of Hawaii’s ohana structures, where extended family members often serve as caretakers and household anchors,” the agency wrote.
The bill passed both houses without opposition before technical language differences prompted a conference committee process.
The Senate version introduced drafting changes, including gender-neutral terminology and a reorganized succession hierarchy, that the House did not fully accept.
Tuesday’s vote followed agreement on a negotiated conference draft. Richards confirmed that the Senate had reviewed the Conference 1 draft before the meeting and received a release from the Finance Committee, clearing the procedural path for an immediate vote.
Because the Hawaii Homes Commission Act is a federal statute, changes to it are subject to review by the U.S. Department of the Interior and a congressional review process separate from state approval.
Final votes in both chambers are expected before the session adjourns on May 8.
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