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Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Reauthorization Act of 2014

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 2, 2014
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income Indigenous Peoples

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Ms. GABBARD. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise proudly in support of H.R.
4329, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination
Reauthorization of 2014. In the 18 years since its enactment, this
legislation has strengthened indigenous self-determination by
empowering native nations to empower their low-income families and
households by assisting with their affordable housing needs.

The State of Hawaii's Department of Hawaiian Home Lands uses these
funds to manage a trust that Congress established for the
rehabilitation of the Native Hawaiian people. Over 1,400 low-income
families in Hawaii have benefited from these services, and in many
cases, homeownership would not have been possible given the $640,000
median price of a single-family home on the island of Oahu.

I would like to give one quick example of the Nakihei family on the
island of Molokai. Brent and Amber Nakihei could not have afforded to
remain in the neighborhood where Brent grew up, but they partnered with
the Molokai Habitat for Humanity and Hawaiian Homes to build a new
three-bedroom, one-bath house in 2007.

They invested 700 hours of work towards construction of that house,
and their four children will now learn the responsibility of
homeownership from a young age and have a safe home to grow up in.
Passage of this legislation will continue to have a tremendous impact
by enabling other families like the Nakihei family.

Nationwide passage of this legislation also would represent an
important step to removing roadblocks to economic success in native
communities and would reaffirm the House's longstanding commitment to
tribal sovereignty and self-determination.

I thank my colleagues, Chairman Hensarling, Ranking Member Waters,
and Representative Moore for their outstanding leadership in allowing
this legislation to move forward, as well as longtime advocate
Representative Young, Congresswoman Hanabusa, and Dan Kildee who worked
very hard on this legislation. I urge my colleagues to join me in
supporting H.R. 4329.

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