Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Reauthorization Act of 2014
Floor Speech
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Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-
Determination Act was first signed into law in 1996. This 5-year
authorization bill was conceptualized not to simply be another Federal
subsidy for Native Americans but rather a bridge to assist millions in
creating a better living condition, create housing opportunities, and
find prosperity for tribal members.
My family's story is exactly this one: when I was born, Dad and Mom
had to move the chickens out of the shack that we moved into. That
building still has a dirt floor in it today and wires in the windows. I
have seen housing conditions similar to this still in New Mexico. I
understand that my family made its way up the prosperity ladder
starting, first, with owning our own home and, second, with then
finding other ways to achieve asset acquisitions, and the same thing
can happen for Native Americans.
In the last 10 years, NAHASDA, as it is known, has become a driving
force for positive change and improvement on tribal lands. Through increased
access to safe and affordable housing and lease-to-own programs aimed
at providing rural tribes with a means for self-growth, the program has
provided flexibility and independence to tribal members nationwide.
This year we are not only reauthorizing this critical bill that
provides much-needed housing; we are also attempting to continue
NAHASDA's tradition of transforming housing programs. We are doing so
by capturing and enhancing market efficiencies and the effectiveness of
streamlined processes to continue building prosperity, something that
has been elusive on tribal lands for too long.
I would like to thank all of those who have assisted in the
development and promotion of this legislation, Congressman Don Young,
Congressman Tom Cole, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Congressman Denny Heck,
and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who made great suggestions during the
markup of this bill. Along with their staffs, they have worked
tirelessly to make the reauthorization of this act possible and a truly
bipartisan effort that achieves many of the reforms requested by Native
American tribes nationwide.
Working together, we were able to reduce the burden on tribes and
expand the opportunities in Native American housing. These reforms will
result in more efficient use of taxpayer money and provide approval of
projects with greater speed, allowing tribes to focus money and
resources on development and innovation instead of spending inordinate
amounts of time and money on administrative requirements. Ultimately,
this will provide more families with homes.
Mr. Speaker, I commend HUD for truly embracing the need for more
modernized programs with more accountability, transparency, and
increased self-determination among Native Americans. Their willingness
to engage with our offices, my counterparts working on this issue, and
the committee has allowed us to create a more united product. Some
Native Americans, upon reading the bill, have declared these changes
and ideas will become transformational if they are adopted into law.
Transformational is what we all came here to do.
H.R. 4329 includes a number of reforms, updates, and additions to the
originating legislation, which are widely supported across Native
American tribes. Since passage out of the Financial Services Committee,
our office has received countless letters of support for passage of the
bill.
In discussions with tribal housing councils and tribal leaders, there
was great frustration with HUD for continued delays, and in extreme
cases, failure to respond altogether. This legislation includes a
compromise way forward to address this shortcoming. It sets a
requirement that HUD shall respond to tribes within a 60-day period,
ensuring timely responsiveness, but it does this without jeopardizing
HUD's oversight responsibility.
This reauthorization has a special provision that provides tribal
businesses with greater opportunities for employment on tribal housing
projects. The bill provides tribes with the flexibility to create
independent maximum rent requirements dictated by the needs of their
communities and with the flexibility to commingle Indian Health Service
funds with NAHASDA money to construct sanitation facilities and greater
infrastructure around housing developments.
Working with the administration, my legislation includes language to
recoup unexpended funds within the program. The agreement that was
reached is more accommodating to tribal needs than the original
request, allowing more room for tribes to work through their balances
while meeting the need for efficiencies in the system.
Finally, we have included a new demonstration project in the bill
designed to attract greater private financing and more developers to
invest private money in housing projects on tribal lands. This program
envisions the same privatization projects that occurred on military
land and succeeded in providing great numbers of new houses for
military individuals in a very short period of time. The objective here
is to put more Native Americans in homes and work through the backlog
of housing needs in ways unseen before on Native lands.
NAHASDA was designed to promote development and increase flexibility
so that tribes may meet the unique challenges they face and provide the
self-determination tribes deserve. The legislation before you today
expands upon these principles and represents an opportunity for greater
prosperity for a cross-section of our society that in many parts of the
Nation is truly in need of assistance.
Finally, I would like to thank Chairman Hensarling and Majority
Leader McCarthy and their staff for their willingness to address this
issue and working with me to bring it up to date.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
There are many different Native American groups across the country who
have sent letters of support, including the National American Indian
Housing Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Southwest Tribal Housing
Alliance, Nevada and California Indian housing authorities, and the
Northwest Indian Housing Association.
In New Mexico, the Acoma Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, Mescalero Apache,
Jicarilla Apache, Santa Clara Pueblo, the Northern Pueblo, Santo
Domingo Pueblo, and the Navajo Nation offers its support. Indian tribes
all across the country are lending their support.
I did note that I had overlooked the gentleman from Michigan (Mr.
Kildee) on the other side of the aisle. His office was also greatly
involved and instrumental in this bill, and I would like to recognize
those efforts.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, again, I appreciate the observations by the
gentleman. We had time to discuss after the hearing and after the
markup, and at that time, it was pointed out that the pilot project is
completely voluntary, easy to opt into and easy to opt out of.
It is not our intent to trap or entrap anyone, but instead open a
door if they desire to go through it. I think there will be tribes that
can go in and build all of houses that they need in a very short period
of time. That is what we are looking for, but again, I take his
observations very seriously, and we have looked for flaws in the
program that might be hooks or have unintended consequences.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remainder of my time.
I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma and, again, appreciate his
leadership.
As you have heard, there is no shortage of debate on the bill, but
there is also no shortage of people coming together and saying let's
pass this bill.
I listened with interest to the ranking member. The points that she
made today were made during the markup, and, again, I appreciate and
respect that and have not set those concerns off on the side. It was
absolutely essential that we move the bill forward in order to get this
passed in this session, so I appreciate all of the support from our
partners across the aisle.
This support that you are hearing from Native Americans across the
country from people in this Chamber is no coincidence. It comes from
hard work, and that hard work has come from both sides of the aisle,
but especially from Ms. Moore, Mr. Heck, Mr. Kildee, and, again, Ms.
Waters. So thank you all for that dedicated effort. On our side, Mr.
Young, Mr. Cole, and Mr. Hensarling have been just vital in getting
this kind of pulled together in a fashion that we could bring it here
today on suspension.
For the past 2 years, my office and I have worked with countless
tribal leaders and housing associations nationwide; we have worked with
other Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle; we have worked
with HUD and the administration--all for one end result, and that is to
create greater prosperity for Native Americans. It is that simple.
I am proud to cosponsor H.R. 4329 because it does so much to
accomplish this goal. For generations, prosperity and growth has evaded
many Native American communities. NAHASDA is not designed as an
entitlement but, rather, as a tool of empowerment and growth. To date,
each reauthorization has built upon the past to make alternations and
updates designed to provide greater autonomy and prosperity on tribal
lands. H.R. 4329 is no exception.
I ask that you join me today in reauthorizing this commonsense yet
transformative legislation, which will help millions realize the dream
of prosperity. Vote ``yes'' and help break a perpetual cycle of poverty
through self-determination and independence.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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