Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Reauthorization Act of 2015

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We are here today to support H.R. 360, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Reauthorization Act.

This is truly a bipartisan bill. It has been over 2 years in the making. Beginning in early 2013, Don Young and Tom Cole, who are both Republicans, joined with me and Democrats Gwen Moore, Denny Heck, Dan Kildee, Tulsi Gabbard, and a host of others from the Democrat side to make a bill that truly works across both aisles and that is widely supported by tribes.

Transformational in its opportunities for Native Americans, it has been widely recognized by those tribes. Most importantly, it is a bill for which we can come together and all be proud of cosponsoring. The legislation before us is just that; it shows that colleagues, regardless of political affiliation, can come together and get the job
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As I go through my district, there are many who wonder why do we have a bill like this. Frankly, it is a treaty responsibility. The responsibility has been signed between the Native Americans and the Federal Government saying that we have a trust responsibility to them.

As I travelled around the reservations in my district, I began to be aware of a circumstance that I had not previously been aware of: houses that were maybe several hundred years old, people still living in those. There is one area with no sewer at all. There are cardboard shacks, people living in situations that they should not be
living in today.

Those things exist. The legislation in front of us today doesn't change the responsibility of the government. It doesn't increase the amount of the dollars flowing to it. It simply tries to make the process a little more streamlined.

I would like to acknowledge that HUD, at one point, was rigorously opposing the transparency, rigorously opposing those reforms that we were putting into their systems. They had duplications of processes that would literally take years in order to get approval to build houses, and we simply said it does not have to be that way.

A second thing struck me. I watched my family grow out of abject poverty into a home ownership culture. Our first home that we purchased was $800, and then we moved up to a $1,500 home. Finally, we thought we really had arrived when we got to the $2,500 home, and then a $15,000, 5-acre property.

And so the pilot project that Mr. Kildee--and he has had great discussions with me--but the pilot project is inserted into the bill in order to facilitate allowing Native Americans to own their own homes on the reservations. It has been very difficult up to now. We addressed those problems which have created a culture of poverty through the years.

So, even though we might have a different view on how to get there, we do not, as Democrats and Republicans, disagree on the fact that prosperity will begin with home ownership. And this pilot project in here--completely voluntary--allows people to move directly into home ownership. It allows the Native American tribes to start to encourage
home ownership on the reservations in order to preserve the cultures there.

The reforms that we have put in for the Native Americans themselves were extremely important. Some of the processes have worked very badly. I have had extraordinarily frank conversations with Native Americans across the country, talking about the need to move to more transparent processes--to processes that make sure the money gets into the homes where they are building them.

And so that is the purpose of this legislation. I, again, commend Congresswoman Moore because she and I really started the process. And then Denny Heck, Dan Kildee, Don Young, and Tom Cole were all sitting there, and we chipped away at it from each side. We got the reforms in. We got the wording in that would allow Indian tribes across the country to feel like they are participating in this.

It is a very difficult process--again, a 3-year process--and I am proud of the legislation we are bringing to the floor today and proud of the efforts on behalf of each one of the people who have been involved here.

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At one point, Chairman Hensarling earlier in the process said he was not wildly ecstatic about the bill coming before his committee if 100 years from now Native Americans were going to be in the same circumstance they were in today. So, again, that was one of the elements of trying to find and facilitate home ownership among Native
Americans so they could begin their growth towards prosperity.

When Indian tribes see this bill, they say: If you can actually get that through, if you can actually get both sides to agree on it, it will be transformational. Well, that is what I came here to do. I came here to be a part of things that transform the way that we approach different programs, not to just drift along and reauthorize. And so it
is with that backdrop that we began to construct the bill.

Again, I would like to thank Ranking Member Waters for her support. I would like to thank Chairman Hensarling and Leader McCarthy for their support. I especially would like to thank my friends on the other side of the aisle for working through the very difficult discussions so that we are able to find a bill that does reach market efficiencies, does make the government more effective and efficient, that does do things that both political parties want to achieve.

We all want to achieve the same things. We approach it from a different point of view. So I can't say enough to my friends on the other side of the aisle: Thank you very much for your hard work and dedication.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I recommend and request that everyone support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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