Yesterday there was much talk in Washington, DC that U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye was planning to attach the Akaka bill (presumably the latest version after major changes) to the Senate Omnibus Spending bill later in December. That would mean that would mean that it would pass without hearings or any other vetting.
Indicating that the possibility was real, four seasoned U. S. Senators released statements deploring the idea.
At about the same time, Hawaii Reporter reported the story and quoted Peter Boylan, Senator Inouye’s spokesman, as saying Inouye was not planning such a move and reaffirming Inouye’s 2009 statement that attachment to an appropriations bill would be “nonsensical”.
Next was Robert Costa at NRO who reported Senator Inouye told NRO that he would like to bring the bill forward, but “it depends on if we can work out something with amendments”.
He then quoted the Senator “We’ve been working on this for over a decade now….. No one can say we’ve been hiding this”. That remark prompted a response from Steven Duffield here.
If you are not confused, you should be. But here is the bottom line: there is no transparency here.
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii stands for transparency in government. Hawaii’s people do not know anything substantive about this bill and people in government are keeping them in the dark.
Before statehood in 1959, Hawaii had a Plebiscite. Approval was 94+%. Now a secret “nonsensical” attachment will skirt that? Walk your talk, Senator Inouye.