From the Civil Beat article on March 16, 2016:

"Ward opposed the bill because it does not award the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands an additional $19 million above its current funding of $9.6 million.

ʻI will vote against this until they make it the full $28 million as ordered by the court and as mandated in the Constitution, which says Hawaiian Home Lands shall be funded sufficiently,ʻ he said. ʻOtherwise they will take it back to court and there will be another uprising of the blue T-shirts. We’ve got to do the right thing and stop dragging our feet. It grieves me to see Souki sticking it in the eyes of Hawaiians.ʻ

The blue T-shirts refers to supporters of DHHL funding that have shown their colors around the Capitol.

But Rep. Jarrett Keohokalole, a Democrat, suggested it was hypocritical of Ward to be complain about DHHL funding now.

“Gene voted for Republican budgets when Gov. Linda Lingle kept DHHL at zero funding,” he said. “That’s what led to the lawsuit. Where were all the floor speeches back then? Nine million is a lot more than zero.”

Read more here.