Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I would like to join my colleagues in support of this important NAHASDA program within this appropriations bill. As has been stated, our country--this Nation, this government--has an important trust responsibility that it is obligated to live up to, and the full funding of NAHASDA is an important way to manifest that obligation. Just as in any community, housing is an essential component of a civil society. What NAHASDA provides is to not only deal with the backlog of housing needs, which are many--certainly, the dollars that are presently available are not keeping up with the need that is out there in these tribal communities, for sure--but to also allow for the maintenance of the housing that is currently in place. The difficulty, of course, with a funding level which is the same as it was a decade ago and with a backlog of housing needs is that, as the housing that has been developed ages, more and more of the dollars are necessarily placed into maintaining and improving existing housing, which further increases the backlog of available housing. I would just suggest to my colleagues--and I know many of my colleagues have done this--to visit the communities. Talk to them about their housing needs, and take a look at the conditions that many are left to live in. You will find that, while this program has been quite successful, as has been said, in providing 110,000 housing units since its inception, there is so much more that needs to be done.…”