Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 42, the Alaska Native Settlement Trust Eligibility Act. This legislation makes a simple but necessary fix to Federal law, ensuring that certain benefits distributed through Alaska Native corporation settlement trusts do not unreasonably disqualify vulnerable Alaskans from receiving assistance. For decades, Alaska Native corporations have provided vital support to their shareholders, including through settlement trusts, an essential tool Congress authorized in 1988 to deliver benefits in a structured, perpetual way. However, due to an oversight in the law, payments from these trusts are counted as income when determining eligibility for Federal programs like Supplemental Security Income, SNAP, and housing assistance. That means visually impaired and disabled Alaska Natives and elders are forced to make an impossible choice: accept the benefits from their settlement trusts or maintain their access to critical assistance. By ensuring that these benefits are not counted as income, H.R. 42 aligns settlement trust distributions with other Alaska Native benefits already excluded from eligibility calculations. It upholds the original intent of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and protects the most vulnerable in need in our Alaska Native communities. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan, commonsense legislation.…”