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

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chair, I rise today to highlight the tragic shortage of suitable housing on tribal lands, and to call for increasing funding for the highly successful Native American Housing and Self Determination Act.

Now, in 1996, Congress reorganized native housing programs into NAHASDA, a block grant system administered by tribes in cooperation with HUD. NAHASDA has proven to be an extremely effective tool for tribes to help tribal members increase the quality and quantity of housing.

NAHASDA not only works, but fosters tribal self-determination and affirms the trust relationship that exists between Congress and tribal nations.

Mr. Chairman, a bipartisan coalition of Members, Representatives COLE, HANABUSA, HECK, KILDEE, and Representative Young and I, have introduced a bipartisan reauthorization NAHASDA, which is extremely similar to a draft that Representative Pearce has introduced.

Now, both bills, Mr. Chairman, make prudent changes to increase the efficiency of the delivery of the program dollars, and I strongly believe that the changes will have a very positive impact.

But, Mr. Chairman, increased efficiency will not replace the need for more money. The top three poorest counties in the United States of America are primarily populated by Native Americans.

However, despite overwhelming need, we are not increasing funding for the program, and the current appropriation bill does not include funding for all Native peoples. The program funding has been flat for years and, at current level funding levels, we are falling way behind.

Mr. Chairman, opponents of NAHASDA reauthorization point to the slow spend-down rate of a single tribe, giving the false sense that there is a surplus. However, the overall spend-down rate in NAHASDA exceeds that of other HUD programs, indicative of the dire housing needs.

The first people of this Nation suffer in crushing poverty on remote reservations, outside of the view of most Americans. The National Congress of American Indians finds that 40 percent of on-reservation housing is substandard, compared to 6 percent outside of Indian Country.

The homes are overcrowded, and too many basic utilities like access to the sewer system or even indoor plumbing is missing.

I call on Congress to put these first Americans in their hearts and to consider helping these communities by supporting both NAHASDA reauthorization and increased funding for this extremely successful Native housing program.

By supporting funding for the Native American Housing and Self Determination Act, we are working towards increasing the quality of housing for Native Americans, and that is good for all of our districts.

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

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