Catherine Cortez Masto

We do need bold solutions and that is why I introduced the Large Scale Water Recycling Project and Drought Resiliency Investment Act.

The Colorado is the lifeblood for many western states. It is the economic engine of the Southwest.

Please talk to me about how the Department intends to help us address this drought issue when there is a decrease in the budget for the Bureau of Reclamation.

This is necessary. These types of bold programs are necessary to bring new water into the system.

For the Bureau of Reclamation, it shows that for the Fiscal Year 2022 request, there is an eight-percent decrease in the budget.

Thank you so much for being here. Let me say, I appreciate the comments so far.

I am hopeful that the Administration, the Department of the Interior--you will support this type of legislation.

I completely agree with you, and I hope to work with you on this issue even more so to make sure we are providing adequate services along with the medical services, behavioral services, and wellness services that we need for Indian Country.

It’s critical that we address the needs of our Native communities.

Housing is health care; it is.

I am a proud cosponsor of the bipartisan NAHASDA reauthorization.

Let us not just build it back the way it used to be; let us build it back in a more resilient fashion.

We cannot just continue business as usual, continue doing what we have done in the past. We have to do better.

When we discuss resilience we need to ensure our Tribal communities are part of that conversation.

I have to agree with my colleague from Montana. Something is happening there, and we cannot discount it as some sort of natural event that occurs and has occurred in the past.

We have to stop reacting to these as one-off disasters that we cannot predict.

Thank you. And then for purposes of the COVID relief packages, all of them, including the most recent one, the American Rescue Plan, is that the sole cause for what you see with respect to the minimum increase in inflation?

You know, in Nevada, our employment rate has fallen sharply since the pandemic last spring. Unfortunately, we are still fourth in the Nation for unemployment.

And thank you for saying that because that was my next question.

I would probably think it would be the first conversation they would have with anybody from HUD on this particular issue.

I appreciate this Committee and many of my colleagues for their focus on Tribal housing and improving affordable rental housing.

I have raised this issue with the USTR. I am hearing from many of my businesses in my home State of Nevada about the impact of these tariffs.

I, along with my colleague, sent letter to then-HUD Secretary Carson and Secretary Fudge, urging them to issue guidance.

I encourage the Committee to follow up with HUD about this research, and to help clear the way for findings to be discussed and evaluated.

The one thing I have learned is just what you said, coordination is such an easy thing to say that should happen.