Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Reauthorization Act of 2007

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

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Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment brought by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland).

Perhaps I will work backwards through this from what I have heard during this debate. One of them would be the decision that was made in Rice v. Cayetano in the year 2000 that Native Hawaiians are an ethnic group and that it is unconstitutional and in violation of the Civil Rights Act to provide special protected status and privileges to people based upon their ethnicity. To raise that issue as an argument here on the floor isn't railing against judicial activism. To bring an amendment here to the floor of the United States Congress and ask the people's House to provide a majority vote on whether or not to authorize funds to go to Native Hawaiians, it isn't a conflict with judicial activism; to the contrary, it calls upon the people through their elected representative to make that decision. I think it is very consistent with our Constitution. It isn't railing against judicial activism; it simply recognizes the case and recognizes the Constitution.

With regard to Chief Justice Roberts making the argument in favor of the Hawaiian side of this argument, if my recollection is correct, and I believe it is, that was then private sector attorney John Roberts who made that decision who was under the employment of people who had hired him to make the best argument he could make. But I don't remember him saying he had won the argument. So we know that when attorneys are in private practice, they take on clients and they do the best job they can of making that argument. The attorneys that argued in Rice v. Cayetano, the prevailing side was the side of the Constitution and the side of the people.

I have represented two reservations now for 11 years in either the Iowa Senate or the United States Congress. I have had good relations with the people there on the reservations in my district, and it echoes across the Missouri River into Nebraska. I am not without some sense of experience and sensitivity when it comes to these issues that have to do with tribes, reservations and ethnicity.

But I am concerned about a consistent and constant effort to balkanize America, to encourage Americans to divide themselves into groups and identify themselves based upon their ethnicity and the national origin of their ancestors.

I listen and I hear there are 2,100 Native Hawaiians living in Georgia. Why can't we just call them Georgians? Why can't we call them Americans? Why can't we, as the voice of the people, encourage each other to remember our history and remember the legacy and remember the cultures that come, but focus on being Americans and erase the lines between us rather than drawing continually brighter and brighter lines, further balkanizing America, encouraging people to gather together as ethnicities in enclaves.

And I am going to be one who will be, if the day comes that this Hawaiian legislation, the big bill comes to this floor, I will be opposing it as well, Mr. Chairman, because that divides Americans and it sets a new standard that has not been set and that is recognizing ethnicities as tribes. If that happens, any ethnicity that can gain the political leverage to gain a majority vote here on the floor of Congress, here in the House and in the Senate, can then be raised to the same level that we have set aside for Native Americans that we are dealing with here in this bill.

So this slipped in. This authorization slipped in in the year 2000 without a lot of opposition. I agree with the gentlelady's position there. It should have been opposed. I think it was a mistake by Congress, and it brought about a $9 million appropriation in 2007. It is probably a $25 million appropriation obligation through about the year 2012.

This is where we draw the line. This is where we have to take the stand on what is really the Constitution and what is right. Ethnicities can't be granted special status.

I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland).

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