A bill to establish a memorial for Hansen's disease patients at Kalaupapa was hung up in a procedural vote on a massive public lands bill that failed in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month.

But John White, chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, said yesterday that he expects the House to vote again tomorrow and pass the legislation.

The earlier vote was done under a procedure called a "suspension of the rule," used primarily for noncontroversial bills and resolutions, White said. It required a two-thirds majority, but it missed that threshold by two votes.

There was concern among lawmakers about provisions of the omnibus bill that placed restrictions on energy exploration in some protected tracts on the Mainland. The Kalaupapa bill had nothing to do with the objections to the legislation.

Tomorrow, the House is expected to take a simple majority vote, which gives the bill more than enough votes needed for passage, White said.

The Senate approved the measure in January.

If signed into law by the president, the bill would establish a memorial within Kalaupapa National Historical Park to honor and remember Hansen's disease patients who were forcibly sent to the peninsula from 1866 to 1969. Of approximately 8,000 patients buried at Kalaupapa, only about 1,300 have marked graves.

Ka 'Ohana O Kalaupapa, a group of Hansen's disease patients, relatives and friends, would be responsible for the memorial's cost. But the interior secretary would have final approval of the monument's design, size, inscriptions and location.