Last night, Neil Abercrombie got his farewell gift from the House, a vote on their version of the Akaka bill, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (six Republicans voted for it). Over in the Senate, Lamar Alexander issued an immediate push-back:

“I’m disappointed that the House of Representatives passed legislation which the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights opposes because the bill would ‘discriminate on the basis of race.’ The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act would create a new sovereign government within our borders based solely on race. But in America, we say, ‘One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all’— not ‘Many nations, divided by race, with special privileges for some.’ I urge the Senate to reject this ill-advised legislation as it has done in the past.”
On August 28, 2009, in a letter to members of Congress, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights expressed opposition to the Senate version of the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (S. 1101), which it noted is “substantially similar” to legislation rejected by the Senate on June 8, 2006. In its letter, the Commission quoted its 2006 report opposing the bill because it “would discriminate on the basis of race or national origin and further subdivide the American people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege.”