Jeff Flake: “As I mentioned before, I originally had an amendment that I would have liked to have offered which would simply say that…”

“As I mentioned before, I originally had an amendment that I would have liked to have offered which would simply say that we would add the following: ``Nothing in this act shall relieve a Native Hawaiian governing authority from complying with the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution.'' This motion to recommit is very similar to that. As I mentioned before, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission has concerns about the legislation. They said, ``This would discriminate on the basis of race or national origin and further subdivide the American people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege.'' I think there is sufficient concern that we should find the safe harbor here of making sure that the 14th amendment applies.”