The Office of Hawaiian Affairs would see its share of public land trust revenue more than double to $35 million under a bill advanced by a state House committee Wednesday.

Members of a largely Native Hawaiian audience in a state Capitol conference room applauded when the House Committee on Water, Land and Hawaiian Affairs voted for House Bill 402 without dissent.

OHA has been trying to increase its land trust allocation for nearly a decade but has run into political resistance. Last year a similar bill died in committee and in 2016 a Legislature-mandated committee tasked with negotiating the issue fizzled without the cooperation of Gov. David Ige.

The Hawaii Admission Act and the state Constitution established the public land trust for the betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians and for the general public. The trust comprises more than 1 million acres of former government and crown land of the Kingdom of Hawaii, seized in the overthrow of the kingdom.

It was nearly four decades ago that the state formally recognized that 20 percent of all funds derived from those public lands, or ceded lands, should go to OHA for, among other things, the betterment of Native Hawaiians. The problem, however, was interpreting what funds meet the requirement as ceded lands revenue. After decades of haggling and disagreement, the Legislature and OHA in 2006 agreed to $15.1 million as an interim amount transferred to OHA annually.

Act 178 also required state agency reporting to provide data on what revenue was being generated from the use of public land trust lands.

With that data, OHA commissioned independent audits and, along with the state’s own accounting, determined that the $15.1 million falls drastically short of the 20 percent OHA is entitled to.

HB402 not only increases the annual allotment of revenue to $35 million but transfers $139 million to OHA to make up for revenue not received over the last seven years.

According to OHA’s testimony, there is other trust land revenue that probably should be included in the annual amount, but for now $35 million “pending more complete information and further discussion is prudent, fair and a long-awaited step towards better fulfilling the state’s constitutional and moral obligations to Native Hawaiians.”

“We believe it’s a fair amount,” said Kamana‘opono Crabbe, OHA CEO told the committee.

The bill also establishes a panel to update the allotment every six years.

Hawaiian activist Walter Ritte was among those who urged the committee to support the bill Wednesday. He said an ongoing cultural resurgence has made Native Hawaiians aware of their history, the overthrow and other past injustices now more than ever.

“This just adds fuel to the fire that Hawaiians are getting ignored — again. They are being shortchanged — again. Being stepped on — again. And that we are the low man on the totem poll in this community,” Ritte said.

“We know what we deserve, and we are here to get what we deserve,” he said. “So what the Hawaiians deserve is what we should be getting, because we already lost enough through the overthrow and the illegal annexation.”

Afterward, state Rep. Daniel Holt, (D, Kalihi, Palama, Iwilei, Chinatown), co-chair of the Hawaiian Caucus, issued the following statement:

“This is a matter of fairness and our ability as a governing body to ‘auamo kuleana (the responsibility we carry on our shoulders), this measure brings equity to decades long discussions and debates,” Holt said.

Crabbe said the additional money would be used to underwrite more programs, grants and services that benefit both the Native Hawaiian and larger communities.

The bill moves on to the House Finance Committee, while a companion measure, Senate Bill 1363, passed first reading in the state Senate.