Native America Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Reauthorization

Floor Speech

NATIVE AMERICAN HOUSING ASSISTANCE AND SELF-DETERMINATION REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - September 06, 2007)

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Mr. BOREN. Mr. Chairman, I offer this second-degree amendment because, while I respect the efforts of the gentleman from North Carolina to protect the tribal membership and rights of the Cherokee Freedmen, we must consider the fact that this issue is currently being addressed in the tribal court system. Pursuing congressional action before these citizens have their day in court would be acting prematurely.

Earlier this year, the tribal courts approved a stay, which had the effect of reinstating the Freedmen to full citizenship status, including benefits and voting rights. This reinstatement applies to all Freedmen descendants who had previously been citizens and will last until the Cherokee Nation District Court reaches a decision.

Because the Freedmen are current members of the Cherokee Nation, cutting off funding for the Cherokee Nation today would have the effect of cutting benefits to the Freedmen, the very people this amendment attempts to protect.

Mr. Chairman, my amendment would allow the courts to uphold their responsibility in hearing this case and ruling before this disallowment of funding to the Cherokee Nation can be put into place.

In this country, we have judicial processes in place that should be honored before Congress steps in to act. My amendment is a reasonable approach, and I remain committed to protecting the rights of my constituents, the Cherokee Nation members, which currently includes the Freedmen.

My amendment would not end debate on this issue.

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After the courts render a decision, Congress can examine this issue if necessary. Congressional action may not be necessary. So let's stop trying to find a legislative solution to a problem that does not currently exist. My amendment allows us to wait on the courts to rule before making a rash decision to cut funding for thousands of my constituents.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE of Oklahoma. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. COLE of Oklahoma. Mr. Chairman, I want to associate myself very much with the remarks that my good friend from Oklahoma (Mr. Boren) made and certainly will be supporting his secondary amendment.

I also want to tell my good friend from North Carolina that I certainly recognize his motives and his seriousness, because I think it is a serious

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issue, and I think he is to be commended for approaching it that way, and thoughtfully, and I know he has done so.

But I, too, share the opinion of my friend from Oklahoma that we are acting precipitously here. This is a matter in which, frankly, most of this body is not well informed. There are court cases underway in both the Federal and the tribal systems that ought to be allowed to play out. And if we are going to address this issue, we ought to do so in normal order through the committee fashion.

As Mr. Boren so ably pointed out, the unintended, and I know unintended, consequences of this amendment would be to actually deny benefits to people that are currently receiving them. And to begin a process, quite frankly, that has profound implications for everybody in Indian Country and for all tribal governments is one we ought to think about, I think, very, very deeply before we embark on it. But, again, that, in no way, leads me to question the motives of my good friend from North Carolina or the seriousness of the issue he raises. I very much accept that.

A final point I want on say on behalf, not on behalf, it is not my place to do that, but certainly I want to recognize that from the Cherokee Nation standpoint, they are the most racially diverse tribe in North America. There are thousands of African American Cherokees. In fact, there is every other race in that particular tribe. They see this as a tribal sovereignty issue. They do not see it as a racial issue. I certainly understand why some of my friends would have a different point of view. But I think, again, the matters involved here are so important and so deep that they deserve full consideration first in the courts and then in an appropriate legislative process in Congress.

Mr. Chairman, I want to conclude by thanking my friend from Oklahoma for arriving at what I think is a very reasonable surmise.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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