Politics

Bipartisan group introduces measure to reauthorize NAHASDA

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House introduced a bill to reauthorize the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act.

NAHASDA, which first became law in 1996, expired in September 2013 without action by Congress. The National American Indian Housing Council is lobbying for success this year.

"Considering the short legislative calendar for the remainder of the 113th Congress, NAIHC urges membership to contact their members of Congress to convey the importance of NAHASDA and ask for their support," NAIHC said in a legislative alert today.

H.R.4277 will keep Indian housing programs up and running for another five years. The bill authorizes $650 million in funding for each fiscal year.

The co-sponsors include Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, and Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii), the top Democrat on the subcommittee.

The bill was referred to the House Financial Services Committee. The text of the measure isn't yet available on Thomas but NAIHC posted a copy on its website.

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee passed S.1352, its version of the bill, in December. The measure is pending before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.