WASHINGTON — The Bush administration "strongly opposes" a bill to create a process for a future Native Hawaiian government because it would divide governmental power by race and ethnicity, a U.S. Justice Department official said yesterday.

"We think it wrong to balkanize the governing institutions of this country along racial and ancestral lines," Gregory G. Katsas, a senior Justice Department attorney, said at a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the bill.

Creating a new Native Hawaiian government also would "give rise to constitutional questions recently described by the Supreme Court as 'difficult' and 'considerable,' " Katsas said.

The hearing was the first time the administration had testified before a congressional panel about its opposition to the bill, first broached in discussions last year with U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawai'i, the bill's lead sponsor.

Katsas said the "corrosive effect" of the bill's creation of "favored persons" would be hard-hitting since Native Hawaiians live throughout the country.

"Each of those favored persons would be afforded different rights and privileges from those afforded to his or her neighbors, based solely on race and ancestry classifications," he said.

But sitting on the same panel with Katsas, Hawai'i state Attorney General Mark Bennett said Native Hawaiians were not asking for privileged treatment, only the same treatment the federal government has given other indigenous people.

"The notion of critics that (the bill) creates some sort of unique race-based government at odds with our constitutional and congressional heritage contradicts Congress' longstanding recognition of other native peoples," he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has given "virtually complete deference" to Congress' decision in such cases, Bennett said.

Akaka said he hoped the committee would vote on the bill next week.

Senate Republicans have stymied the bill over the years, arguing it would set up an unconstitutional race-based government. Last year, they blocked a bipartisan effort to force a final debate and vote on the Senate floor with a 56-41 vote, short of the 60 votes needed. But with a Democratic majority now in the Senate, supporters may have a better chance this year.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a committee member, criticized the language in the Justice Department's statement attacking the bill, which used words like secession, balkanization, racially isolated government, preferential treatment and corrosive effect.

Murkowski said the "harsh and divisive words" were used to draw conclusions about the distinction between Native Hawaiians and indigenous groups — American Indians and Alaska Natives — that have gained federal recognition.

"Yet nowhere in the statement do I find any historical or anthropological references to support these conclusions," she said.

The bill, first introduced in 2000, would create a process for a Native Hawaiian governing entity to be formed and gain federal recognition. The new government would be able to negotiate with the United States and Hawai'i over the disposition of Hawaiian land, assets and other resources.

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i, said Native Hawaiians have had a political and legal relationship with the United States for the past 140 years through treaties and federal laws but their government was overthrown with the help of U.S. troops in 1893.

"The courts have concluded that termination (of that government) can only be reversed by an act of Congress," said Inouye. "The time for reconciliation is long overdue — and the time for restoration (of the government) is now."

H. William Burgess, a spokes-man for Aloha for All, said the bill would create an unconstitutional class of Native Hawaiians with superior political rights and give carte blanche authority to state and federal officials to give public lands, natural resources and other assets to the new Native Hawaiian government.

While the bill allows for federal and state review of any agreement about land and other assets, Burgess said he did not believe that it would be done if it could be avoided.

Haunani Apoliona, chairwoman of the state's Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said Native Hawaiians were seeking the restoration of their government because they have seen how the federal policy of self-determination and self-governance has enabled native people to thrive.

But outside the committee room, Ikaika Hussey, a representative of Hui Pu, an umbrella group of Native Hawaiians opposed to the bill, was buttonholing people to protest the group's not being invited to participate in the hearing and the lack of public hearings on the bill in Hawai'i.

"The only hearings in Hawai'i were held seven years ago," he said. "We want to have our views heard."

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