HCR199

WHEREAS, the Hale Koa Hotel is an eight-hundred-seventeen-room United States Armed Forces recreation center resort occupying nine acres of prime Waikiki beachfront within the seventy-two-acre Fort DeRussy Military Reservation, operating as a commercial hospitality enterprise that competes directly with the State's visitor industry while paying no transient accommodations tax, no general excise tax, no property tax, and no rent to the State of Hawaii or to the public land trust, and sitting on former crown and government lands that the federal government has no legitimate need to retain for military defense; and

WHEREAS, the lands now known as Fort DeRussy, part of the Kalia district of Waikiki, were historically a landscape of rivers, taro patches, fishponds, and freshwater springs and were acquired by the United States War Department through General Order 20 in 1906 for a military reservation, initially designated the Kalia Military Reservation and renamed Fort DeRussy in 1909; and

WHEREAS, Territorial Governor Lucius E. Pinkham issued executive orders in 1911, 1917, and 1918, which set aside these crown and government lands for federal military use, after which the Army destroyed the fishponds and wetlands by continuously pumping dredged ocean fill for nearly one year; and

WHEREAS, Battery Randolph was constructed between 1909 and 1911 as part of the coastal defense of Honolulu Harbor and was equipped with two fourteen-inch guns that were the largest in the Pacific; and

WHEREAS, those guns never fired a shot in defense, because their fourteen-mile range had been rendered obsolete by the eighteen-mile accuracy of enemy warships by 1941; and

WHEREAS, the Army itself acknowledged this obsolescence by redesignating Fort DeRussy as a rest and recuperation center in June 1942, placing the batteries on standby status in 1943, declaring the guns surplus in 1944, decommissioning the guns by 1946 razing the fort's Battery Dudley to the ground in 1969, and disbanding the Coastal Artillery Corps in 1950; and

WHEREAS, notwithstanding this record, Army Secretary Wilber M. Brucker designated Fort DeRussy a "permanent installation" in 1956, an administrative label that carries no legal weight under the Admission Act; and

WHEREAS, in 1975, the Department of Defense constructed the Hale Koa Hotel, a fifteen-story resort, on nine of the beachfront acres; and the fort's entire history since 1942 has consisted exclusively of recreation, lodging, museum operation, and administrative education, none of which constitutes a military defense purpose sufficient to justify the continued retention of these former crown and government lands under section 5(e) of the Admission Act, P.L. 86-3; and

WHEREAS, the Heritage Foundation, in a 1982 report titled "Surplus Federal Property: It's Time to Sell," identified Fort DeRussy by name as surplus federal property, noting that, of its seventy-two acres, seventeen beachfront acres were "currently unused" and were valued at approximately $13,000,000 per acre at 1982 prices; and

WHEREAS, Fort DeRussy is part of 432,725.91 acres of crown and government lands seized by the federal government between 1900 and 1959, as documented by the Legislative Reference Bureau's 1969 report, "Public Land Policy In Hawaii: An Historical Analysis"; and

WHEREAS, federal law provides for the return of Hawaii's lands to the public land trust, via section 5(e) of the Admission Act of 1959, P.L. 86-3, which specifies that each federal agency having control over retained crown and government lands shall report to the President of the United States (President) regarding its continued need for such lands, and if the President determines the lands are no longer needed by the United States, they shall be conveyed to the State of Hawaii; and via Public Law 88-233, enacted by Congress in December 1963, which ensured that the return mechanism would continue to operate beyond the original five-year deadline; and

WHEREAS, United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye, testifying in the 1963 Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands hearings leading to the passage of Public Law 88-233, said that "[t]hese lands were held in trust by the federal government for the people of Hawaii, with the eventual hope that they would be returned, when federal need was not present[,]" Senator Inouye also argued that even lands declared surplus after the five-year deadline should be returned at no cost because "[w]e feel this is not equitable, and I do not think this was within the intent of the Members of Congress"; and

WHEREAS, Senator Hiram L. Fong, testifying at the same 1963 hearing, spoke directly to the injustice of the federal government's retention of Hawaii's lands, stating "Justice is on our side. We are asking for the return of lands not needed by the federal government--lands that represent a tiny fraction compared with the 1,275,000 acres the Territory of Hawaii gave to the federal government without cost at annexation," and further noting "As against 1,600 acres Hawaii gave free of charge to the federal government 410,000 [at Statehood]. Surely Congress did intend to compensate Hawaii for these acres"; and

WHEREAS, Kermit Gordon, then Director of the United States Bureau of the Budget, confirmed the validity of Hawaii's claim in 1963 correspondence to Vice-President Lyndon Johnson, stating "We believe that Hawaii has a unique claim on the lands and property involved since they were originally given to the United States by the Republic or Territory of Hawaii. That claim and the special status of those lands and property have been recognized by the United States for many years"; and

WHEREAS, the federal portfolio includes substantial lands not used for national defense purposes, but rather for hotels, short-term vacation rentals, golf courses, marinas, and beach resorts operated exclusively for the recreation of military-affiliated patrons, and that should rightfully be available for the wellness and recreation of all the people of Hawaii, including lands comprising the Hale Koa Hotel; the Bellows Air Force Station recreational area in Waimanalo, which occupies a pristine stretch of windward Oahu coastline with one hundred seventeen lodging units, including beachfront cabins, condominiums, and campsites; the Pililaau Army Recreation Center in Waianae, which includes cottages at Pokai; the Barbers Point beach cottages at Kalaeloa; the recreational beach cottages, cabanas, Klipper Villas, and golf course on a Native Hawaiian burial site at Mokapu; the Kilauea Military Camp, a ninety-two‑unit lodge and cottage complex within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the island of Hawaii; the Barbers Point Golf Course at Kalaeloa; the Leilehua Golf Course in Wahiawa; the Mamala Bay Golf Course at Keehi; the marina at Ke Awalau o Puuloa; and all associated Morale, Welfare and Recreation facilities across every major island, all of which operate on former crown and government lands for the exclusive benefit of a restricted class of patrons rather than for the people of Hawaii as a whole, and none of which are essential for the defense of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the federal government has used, occupied, and controlled crown and government lands of the Hawaiian Kingdom for military and non-military purposes since 1900 without paying fair market rent to the Territory or State of Hawaii; without contributing any revenue to the public land trust established under section 5(f) of the Admission Act, P.L. 86-3; and without making any payment to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for the benefit of Native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, established principles of federal and state law support the conclusion that the uncompensated federal retention and use of crown and government lands constitutes a compensable taking and breach of trust; and

WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court held in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371 (1980), that the federal government's seizure of indigenous lands without adequate consideration constitutes a Fifth Amendment taking requiring just compensation, and awarded compensation with interest compounded from the date of the original dispossession; and

WHEREAS, the Supreme Court held in Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp., 458 U.S. 419 (1982), and reaffirmed in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, 594 U.S. 139 (2021), that a permanent physical occupation of property by or at the direction of the government constitutes a per se taking regardless of the public benefit conferred; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Supreme Court held in Ahuna v. Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, 64 Haw. 327 (1982), that the State's obligations to Native Hawaiian trust beneficiaries constitutes a fiduciary duty of the highest order; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Supreme Court held in Office of Hawaiian Affairs v. Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii, 117 Haw. 174 (2008), that Native Hawaiians possess unrelinquished claims to the ceded lands and that the State has a fiduciary duty not to alienate those lands until such claims are resolved, an analysis that the United States Supreme Court in Hawaii v. Office of Hawaiian Affairs, 556 U.S. 163 (2009), reversed only on the narrow question of the 1993 Apology Resolution's operative legal effect while leaving the underlying state-law trust obligations undisturbed; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature finds that these authorities, taken together, establish that the federal government's permanent physical occupation of former crown and government lands for purposes unrelated to military defense--lands impressed with a trust for the benefit of the inhabitants of Hawaii since at least the Joint Resolution of Annexation of 1898 and formalized under section 5(f) of the Admission Act, P.L. 86-3--without payment of fair market rent to the public land trust or to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs constitutes both a per se taking under the Fifth Amendment and a continuing breach of the fiduciary obligations recognized by Congress, the Hawaii State Constitution, and the courts of this State; and

WHEREAS, the State of Hawaii has a fiduciary obligation to its citizens, and particularly to Native Hawaiians as named beneficiaries of the public land trust, to pursue all lawful means to recover former crown and government lands that are no longer being used for the purposes for which they were retained and to seek fair compensation for the uncompensated use of those lands; and the Legislature seeks the return of all lands no longer needed for legitimate military purposes, beginning with the Hale Koa Hotel; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2026, the Senate concurring, that the President of the United States is requested to determine that federal recreational facilities on Hawaii public lands, including Fort DeRussy and the Hale Koa Hotel, are no longer required for the defense of the United States, pursuant to the Admission Act, P.L. 86-3, and as further required by Public Law 88-233; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President is requested to order the immediate conveyance of these public lands to the State of Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature believes and declares that the continued federal retention of the Hale Koa Hotel, Fort DeRussy lands, and other non-defense recreational and leisure facilities does not constitute a legitimate federal need sufficient to justify withholding these former crown and government lands from the public land trust; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature requests the President to direct a comprehensive review of all federally retained lands in the State of Hawaii, including but not limited to the set aside lands and all lands under sixty-five-year leases executed in 1964 at the nominal charge of one dollar per lease, to determine which lands are no longer needed for legitimate military defense purposes and should be immediately returned to the State, as contemplated by the framers of the Admission Act and as advocated by Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Senator Hiram L. Fong, and Governor John A. Burns; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature declares, consistent with the testimony of Senator Daniel K. Inouye, that the lands retained by the federal government were held in trust for the people of Hawaii with the expectation that they would be returned when no longer needed, and that federal agencies have a continuing obligation to report on their need for such lands and to release those lands that are no longer necessary for the defense of the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature declares, consistent with the testimony of Senator Hiram L. Fong, that at annexation the federal government took approximately 1,800,000 acres of crown and government lands, that the Territory further gave to the federal government an additional 410,000 acres at statehood, and that the law requires the return of all lands no longer serving a legitimate military purpose; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that upon conveyance, all lands comprising Fort DeRussy Military Reservation and any other returned federal lands shall be incorporated into the public land trust established under section 5(f) of the Admission Act and Article XII, section 4 of the Hawaii State Constitution, and shall be managed and administered in accordance with the five trust purposes enumerated therein; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the State of Hawaii, in partnership with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, shall develop a comprehensive land use plan for the returned Fort DeRussy lands that prioritizes cultural restoration of the Kalia district and the healing site of Kawehewehe, public access to the shoreline, revenue generation for public land trust beneficiaries, and the betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governor is requested to engage the Hawaii Congressional delegation, the United States Department of Defense, the United States Department of the Interior, and the Office of Management and Budget to facilitate the expeditious return of the Fort DeRussy lands and all other unneeded federal lands to the State; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Attorney General of the State of Hawaii is requested to evaluate all available legal avenues, including but not limited to litigation under the Admission Act, Public Law 88-233, federal land transfer statutes, and applicable trust law, to compel the return of the Fort DeRussy lands and other unneeded federal lands if the federal government fails to act voluntarily; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Public Land Trust Working Group is requested to agendize and request legislative funding for a comprehensive independent appraisal of all federally-occupied crown and government lands to determine the precise fair market rental value, both current and cumulative, owed to the State and to the public land trust, and to transmit the results of the resulting appraisal to the Legislature, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and the Hawaii congressional delegation no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2027; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature recognizes and honors the service of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, and that nothing in this measure is intended to diminish the contributions of military service members, but rather to assert the rightful claims of the people of Hawaii to lands that are no longer serving a military defense purpose, consistent with the clear intent of the Admission Act and the bipartisan consensus expressed by Hawaii's leaders across party lines since statehood; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, Attorney General of the United States, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Army, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, members of Hawaii's congressional delegation, Governor, Attorney General, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, and Director of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	199
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026
STATE OF HAWAII