The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has offered to go back to the bargaining table with Attorney General Mark Bennett over the issue of ceded land revenues.

The proposal is "a realization that the Legislature is not going to pass the settlement as we presented it because they're not satisfied with it," OHA administrator Clyde Namu'o said today.

The House had approved a version of the settlement agreement reached earlier this year between OHA and Bennett. Three Senate committees rejected the bill on March 17.

State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa said she and the Senate majority leadership have agreed to back what essentially is a new bill calling for OHA and Bennett to negotiate a new settlement, using the $200 million package that was offered in the original bill as a starting point for negotiations.

Hanabusa said a key provision of the new legislation is there is no reference to addressing future claims or any waivers from future lawsuits against the state.

Critics of the original OHA-Bennett proposal questioned both of those points.