National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC)

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Posted: June 29, 2020

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Chairman Hoeven and Vice Chairman Udall Introduce Bipartisan NAHASDA Legislation

Yesterday (June 25, 2020), Senators John Hoeven (R-ND), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and Tom Udall (D-NM), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs introduced S. 4090, bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act of 1996 (NAHASDA) which will provide needed housing improvements for native communities. The bill was referred to the Senate Committee for Indian Affairs, which can hold a hearing on the bill or pass it on to the full Senate.

This bill is the first bipartisan reauthorization bill introduced in the Senate since NAHASDA expired in 2013. The bill would update NAHASDA by including provisions that would:

Establish an Assistant Secretary for Indian Housing
Authorize NAHASDA and 184 Loan programs through 2031
Consolidate environmental reviews for housing projects
Make tribes eligible to receive housing counseling grants from HUD and make tribes eligible for the HUD Continuum of Care program
Re-create the Tribal Drug Elimination Program that tribes used successfully in the early 2000’s
Fully authorize the Tribal HUD-VASH Program

Gary Cooper, Chairman of the NAIHC Board of Directors, released a quote yesterday mentioning “The National American Indian Housing Council thanks Senators Hoeven and Udall for introducing this bipartisan NAHASDA reauthorization. The Committee’s leadership on this issue comes at a welcome time as the bill would provide certainty for tribal housing programs just as they are stretched thin from responding to COVID-19 in tribal communities. This bill would help native communities by including vital improvements to NAHASDA, 10-year authorizations for tribal housing programs, and by providing tribes greater eligibility to other federal housing programs. NAIHC looks forward to working with the sponsors and all members of Congress to get NAHASDA reauthorized this year,” said Gary Cooper, Chairman of Board of Directors, National American Indian Housing Council.

NAIHC will be discussing the bill during it’s Legislative Committee Call on July 2, 2020 at 1:30 EDT. John Simermeyer and other Senate Committee on Indian Affairs staff will be joining this discussion as well.

To join this call, follow the steps below: