WASHINGTON — Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday she will continue to lobby support from Republican lawmakers and talk with the White House about the hard line it has taken against the Akaka bill.

"That's my role and I'm going to continue to play it because I believe so strongly in the importance of passing this legislation," she said.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee is expected to vote today on the bill, which would create a process for a Native Hawaiian governing entity to be formed and gain federal recognition. Lingle, in Washington for the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders, said she would be attending the session.

Lingle said the state's congressional delegation hasn't shared its strategy for getting Senate approval or overcoming a possible White House veto of the Akaka bill, and that she wasn't sure Congress would approve it this year.

Lingle said she asked about strategy when the delegation — Democratic Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel K. Inouye and Democratic Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono — introduced the bill in January, but received no clear answer.

"I don't know because I'm never involved in the strategy with them. I don't know if they have a strategy," she said.

"I am disappointed by the governor's remarks," Inouye said in a statement.

The Republican governor has said she could be persuasive in winning support from the Bush administration for the Akaka bill, particularly important in light of the congressional delegation's limited influence in the Bush White House, Inouye said.

"The state's congressional delegation has made it clear that (Lingle) could do a great favor for Native Hawaiians by convincing President Bush and his administration to support the passage and enactment of the Akaka bill," Inouye said. "This is the right and just thing to do."

Akaka said he is committed to getting the legislation enacted into law.

"I told Gov. Lingle when she visited my office on Monday that I appreciate the meaningful role that she and her administration have played in committee hearings on the bill," Akaka said.

Under the bill, the new government would be able to negotiate with the United States and Hawai'i over the disposition of Native Hawaiian land, assets and other resources.

The bill's chances of passing the Senate and House are better this year with Democratic majorities controlling both chambers, although opposition from Republican conservatives remains strong.

"The numbers look better than they did before, but the success of the bill is still in jeopardy," said Neal Milner, a political expert at the University of Hawai'i.

As the bill gains a higher profile, more Republican conservatives will become aware of it, generating more opposition, Milner said.

"That had as much to do with deep-sixing the bill last year as anything else," Milner said.

The House Natural Resources Committee approved the bill yesterday without any objections or changes.

SIGNS OF HOPE?

The best indication of overall House support was a March vote on a federal housing bill for Native Hawaiians. Even after the House Republican leadership called for a vote against it, the bill passed 272-150.

Although the bill passed the House once in 2000, it has never been successful in the Senate, where opponents have used procedural roadblocks to keep it from a final vote. Last year, supporters could only muster 56 of the 60 votes needed to force a final vote on the bill, with 41 Republicans opposing it.

If all Democrats and independents voted for the bill, plus Republicans who supported it in the past, supporters might be able to get 63 votes — enough to overcome Senate roadblocks.

But the potential of a Bush veto looms large.

Michael McDonald, a political expert at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., said Bush's veto last week of a bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a veto of an embryonic stem-cell bill last year have broken the ice on his use of that presidential power.

A veto requires a two-thirds majority in each chamber to overcome, a big stumbling block given the past Senate vote.

"As it stands, I don't see much of a chance if Bush decides to veto (the Akaka bill)," McDonald said.

The House version of the Akaka bill will be scheduled for floor debate and a vote.

Abercrombie said he will keep pushing the bill and talking with other House members, particularly conservatives. If the Senate Indian Affairs Committee votes on the bill today, that could put it in position to be scheduled for floor debate and vote.

CRUISING UNTIL RECENTLY

The Justice Department, speaking on behalf of the Bush administration, issued a letter opposing the bill on the eve of last year's Senate vote. The letter said it would be "inappropriate" and raise "difficult constitutional issues" to give Native Hawaiians tribal recognition.

Despite that, Lingle said the bill's supporters presented the situation to her this year as one where the bill was cruising through Congress until a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on it last week.

"As things turned out, there was a very strong statement from the Justice Department that focused on policy as opposed to constitutionality, which is their responsibility — not policy," Lingle said.

At the hearing, Gregory Katsas, a Justice Department attorney, said the administration opposed the bill because, "We think it's wrong to balkanize the governing institutions of this country along racial and ancestral lines."

But Lingle said she would continue to lobby Republican lawmakers and to talk with the White House about not taking such a hard position on the bill.

Lingle said that since being in Washington for the conference, sponsored by the Honolulu-based East-West Center, she has talked with some Republican senators about the bill, including Craig Thomas of Wyoming.

Thomas, the top Republican on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, opposes the bill but Lingle said she keeps touching base with him "just to keep putting my point of view forward."

Lingle said this time, she put her well-known support for the bill in the context of a Republican governor winning re-election in the state by getting a majority in all 51 of the state House legislative districts.

"I'm trying to put that across to them to let them know that people know where I stand and yet they have supported me," she said. "They believe me when I say this is good for the state of Hawai'i, and I firmly and truly believe that."

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.