WASHINGTON, D.C. (HawaiiNewsNow) – The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved a measure that includes negotiations to renew leases of state land for the Pohakuloa and Kahuku training areas.
The Army has had the legal right to seize the lands, which it began leasing more than 60 years ago for $1. Those leases expire in 2029.
Buried in the nearly 1,600-page National Defense Authorization Act is a section instructing the Army to pursue lease renewals for the nearly 20,000 acres of state land at Hawaii's Pohakuloa Training Area and 450 acres at Oahu's Kahuku Training Area.
It does not mention condemning or seizing the land.
“Condemnation of any type, whether it's forcible condemnation or friendly condemnation, was not something the United States Senate would entertain in this very important bill,†said Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board Chair Kai Kahele.
OHA has been pushing the Army Secretary for a negotiated lease, and so has Hawaii's congressional delegation on Capitol Hill.
“I would just like to hear from you that you'd like to avoid that outcome of adverse condemnation,†Sen. Brian Schatz said to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in May.
“We want to come to the most fair resolution as quickly as possible so that we can maintain the relationship with the community and have this national security asset,†Driscoll replied.
“Keeping the lands in our inventory is vital. And if that means a lease, a shorter term lease, a lease with conditions, a lease with fair market value in rent that the Army pays — then that's something that we would consider,†Kahele told HNN.
In May 2025, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources rejected the Army's final environmental impact statement on the Pohakuloa Training Center, a decision that was celebrated by many, especially Native Hawaiians. The new federal legislation instructs the Army to resubmit a new EIS to address concerns raised by the BLNR.
“It needs to take a much deeper look at culture concerns, historic preservation concerns, it needs completed biological opinions so that we can understand what the threats may be to endangered species and habitat,†said Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii.
“This requirement makes clear that the Army should not consider itself above Hawaii's bedrock environmental review laws, which apparently it thought it was when it submitted such shoddy environmental impact statements for those leases last year,†he added.
Gov. Josh Green is out of the state, but his office released a statement, calling the legislation “a positive step forward. The committee language directs the Army to work with the state of HawaiÊ»i on future lease discussions, address environmental concerns, and report its progress to Congress. We look forward to continued engagement as this process moves forward.â€
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