Statement of Congresswoman Mazie K. Hirono of Hawai‘i
in the U.S. House of Representatives
Native American Housing Assistance And Self-Determination Reauthorization Act of 2007
September 6, 2007
Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to the amendment offered by Mr. Westmoreland to eliminate section 811 of H.R. 2786 which reauthorizes the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant and Loan Guarantee programs.
This block grant is used to carry out affordable housing activities for Native Hawaiian families who are eligible to reside on Hawaiian homelands which were established in trust by the United States in 1921 under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.
Due to a variety of factors, including lack of program funding, only 8,000 individuals currently hold leases and reside on Hawaiian homelands. Approximately 23,650 remain on a waiting list, and many of our elderly, our kupuna, have died waiting to achieve the dream of homeownership.
This block grant supports the dreams of homeownership for Native Hawaiians, not just in Hawaii, but across our Nation, as 2,712 Hawaiian homeland applicants currently reside outside of Hawaii. In fact, 21 Native Hawaiians who live in Georgia, the home State of the author of this amendment, have applied for this very program he has not once, but twice, tried to eliminate.
Many of you may remember that this past July the gentleman from Georgia offered an amendment that would eliminate funding for the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant program in the fiscal year 2008 Transportation-Treasury-Housing appropriations bill. This body rejected that amendment in a bipartisan vote of 116 yeas to 307 nays.
These amendments are really just the latest in a pattern of challenge to programs that focus on benefiting American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiian people. An earlier failed challenge to the previously uncontroversial Native American Housing Act, H.R. 835, was the first apparent salvo against Native American programs. Then there was an attempt to strike funds for Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions in the fiscal year 2008 Department of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill.
These actions raise the concern that all programs benefiting indigenous people will be subjected to attack.
Like other indigenous groups, such as American Indians and Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians have a special trust relationship with the United States. It has been well settled that Congress has clear plenary power to fulfill its obligations to indigenous people who once had sovereign governing entities before the establishment of the United States and whose lands are currently within the borders of the United States.
Like American Indians and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians suffered the loss of their sovereignty and their lands to the United States. Congress has an obligation to Native Hawaiians, whose sovereign government was overthrown with the aid of the United States military under the direction of the U.S. minister.
Congress has demonstrated this special relationship by enacting over 150 laws specifically benefiting Native Hawaiians since 1900. None of the laws Congress has enacted benefiting Native Hawaiians have ever been successfully challenged as unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision of Rice v. Cayetano has been bandied about today by supporters of this amendment. I was a member of the Cayetano administration as Lieutenant Governor in Hawaii and sat in the court when arguments in the Rice case were heard. It may interest some of you to know that one of the lawyers arguing for the State of Hawaii's case was John Roberts, who is now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Nothing in the Rice decision holds that programs that benefit Native Hawaiians are unconstitutional. The majority decision did not call into question the trust relationship between the United States Government and Native Hawaiian people. It did not strike down the Office of Hawaiian Affairs or any other program benefiting Native Hawaiians as unconstitutional.
America has a moral and legal obligation to support programs that provide housing, education and other important services for Native Hawaiians. Helping Native Hawaiians achieve and advance is in the best interests of all of the people of our Nation.
I would like to add that it is totally inaccurate and an insult to the Native Hawaiians that they are characterized as not having had a sovereign government. They certainly did.
In closing, I ask that my colleagues join me once again in fighting these unconscionable attacks and vote ``no'' on the Westmoreland amendment.
