Billie Beamer, chairman of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, yesterday struck back at a U.S. senator who said he will start a federal investigation to determine whether Hawaii has properly administered commission land.

Beamer said in a press release that Sen. James Abourezk’s proposed “investigation of past misuse or mismanagement exacerbates the situation, serves no constructive purpose, and the concern comes too late.”

Since the Hawaiian Homes Commission act was created by?Congress in 1920, Beamer said, the federal government’s concern “has ben nil, periodic review absent,” and “federal supplements to this program are non-existent in the entire history of the act.”

She said the people of Hawaii have funded the program to date and asked, “Why should the state taxpayer be held solely liable for reparations to the Hawaiians, a people they did not wrong?”

Abourezk, as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, is here to conduct three hearings … on whether native Hawaiians should be included in federal legislation for American Indians. Almost all of the 26 witnesses spoke for such federal assistance during a 21⁄2-hour hearing yesterday in the State Capitol auditorium. 

Anonymous Valentine for Cayetano

State Rep. Ben Cayetano, D-19th Dist., sat down at his desk on the floor of the House yesterday and found a Valentine’s Day present.

It was addressed “to the HART-break kid.”

Cayetano, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Transportation, has been a vocal critic of the city’s proposed fixed-guideway mass transit program, dubbed the Honolulu Area Rapid Transit system. HART, for short.

Cayetano asked his colleagues if anyone could identify the anonymous donor. That prompted Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-13th Dist., to suggest that perhaps the candies were sent over by Kazu Haya-shida, city transportation services director.

Abercrombie was immediately ruled out of order amidst laughter.

And Cayetano was left scratching his head.