WASHINGTON — Hawai'i will have to wait a little longer for its memorial to the thousands of people who contracted leprosy and were exiled to Moloka'i's Kalaupapa Peninsula.

The legislation establishing the memorial — introduced by Hawai'i Democratic Rep. Mazie Hirono — was part of a massive public lands bill that failed to pass the U.S. House on Wednesday.

The bill failed mainly because of concerns over restrictions it placed on energy exploration in some protected tracts on the Mainland.

The Kalaupapa memorial — eventually to be located in the Kalaupapa National Historical Park — had nothing to do with the objections to the legislation.

The bill required a two-thirds majority in the House for procedural reasons. It fell only two votes short.

It's not clear yet how the House might take it up again.

The Senate overwhelmingly passed the lands package, 73-21, in January.

The memorial would list the names of about 8,000 people who were taken from their homes and isolated on the Kalaupapa Peninsula because of the disease, now known as Hansen's disease.

About 6,700 of them were buried at Kalaupapa in unmarked 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.