Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, in order to keep a new, healthy housing market, we must be committed to affordable housing. All citizens should have access to it.

For 16 years, NAHASDA has provided funding for tribes to implement their own strategies to address housing needs that are, quite frankly, unique to their own communities.

Under the program, they can use funds to address their housing needs through a variety of activities, including construction, rehabilitation, modernization, rental assistance, lending programs, crime prevention, and a host of other strategies.

The Puyallup Tribe in my own home State and district recently used NAHASDA funds to construct housing that reflects their culture with a traditional longhouse design and structure.

It is a 10-unit building that is environmentally friendly and features energy-efficient systems that keep costs out. It is beautiful. It is cost effective. It is economical. Most importantly, it meets a basic need.

In fiscal year 2012 alone, the 369 tribal recipients of grants used that funding to build or acquire more than 1,450 affordable homes and rehabilitate another 4,700. Since the inception of the program, recipients have built, acquired, or rehabilitated more than 110,000 homes; but as has been suggested, the funding has failed to keep up with inflation, and it has not met the demonstrated need for the program. In fact, a lot of the funds end up being used for maintenance and operation because it has been flatlined. Meanwhile, the need for the program grows as the money, in relative terms, shrinks. In the 10 years between 2002 to 2012, the number of overcrowded households increased by 14 percent, and 10 percent of all homes in Indian Country are overcrowded. It is notably higher than the national average.

The Federal Government has a trust obligation to promote the wellbeing of Native Americans. It is a trust obligation. It is a legal obligation. Frankly, it is a sacred obligation. Ensuring the proper funding of NAHASDA is a critical component towards meeting those obligations.

As you consider the 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, I ask all of you to please support the robust funding for NAHASDA.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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