The Office of Hawaiian Affairs announced today it has drafted a bill for introduction to the 2009 session of the state Legislature that will enact public policy for a moratorium on the sale and exchange of ceded lands.

The decision by OHA Trustees to move forward with this legislation emerged following the state administration's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of the unanimous ruling by the Hawai'i Supreme Court that prevents ceded lands from being sold or transferred until the "unrelinquished claims" of Native Hawaiians to those lands are settled.