By JOHN FILES

WASHINGTON, June 8 - The Senate blocked legislation on Thursday that sought to afford Native Hawaiians similar legal standing to American Indians and Native Alaskans.

Senator Daniel K. Akaka, Democrat of Hawaii, who introduced the original bill in 2000, said he was disappointed.

"Sadly," Mr. Akaka said, "the noble values of equality, fairness and strength of diversity, hallmarks of our state and country, fell victim to politics, rhetoric and procedural maneuvering. The central issue of federal recognition for Hawaii's indigenous people has yet to be given its fair examination."

The bill failed on procedural grounds when it failed to get the 60 votes required to bring the matter to the Senate floor for an up-or-down tally. The vote was 56 to 41, with all 41 no votes recorded by Republicans.

Mr. Akaka's bill, known as the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, would have led to the creation of a governing body for the estimated 400,000 Native Hawaiians in the United States. That body would have had the power to negotiate with federal and state authorities over the disposition of land and resources taken by the United States when the Hawaiian Islands were annexed in 1898.

Critics of the measure argued that it would have created race-based privileges, that it could provide a vehicle for Hawaiian secessionists and that it could have prompted legal challenges for those seeking redress against the federal government.

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said he could not vote for a measure "whose very purpose is to divide Americans based upon race."

The Justice Department sent a letter this week to the majority leader, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, saying that it opposed the bill because it went against the nation's tradition of assimilation and would divide people by race.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights voted last year to recommend that Congress not pass the bill, contending that it would "discriminate on the basis of race or national origin and further subdivide the American people into discrete subgroups accorded varying degrees of privilege."

The Senate appeared poised to vote on the matter last fall, but lawmakers were overtaken with legislation to provide aide for victims of Hurricane Katrina. At the time, the Bush administration had raised concerns about the need for the legislation to include protections for American military installations in Hawaii and for language precluding casino gambling.

Mr. Akaka altered the measure in the interim so that the Pentagon would not face negotiations over its land and to prohibit gambling.