The Republican minority in Congress continues to use dirty tricks to fight programs that benefit Native Hawaiians.
For the second time in just a few months, quick action by Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono of Hawai`i was necessary to save an important program.
The story continues below the fold. Mahalo for following me there.
In March, Abercrombie was on the floor of the House of Representatives praising GOP Leader John Boehner for his expressed support of important Native Hawaiian home ownership legislation - while at the same time Boehner was working behind the scenes to successfully kill the bill. Thankfully, Boenher's success was fleeting, as Hirono and Abercrombie worked hard and were able to get the bill revived. Here's my diary on this episode:
The Republicans' anti-Hawaiian animus and sneaky behavior were displayed again this week, as Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia offered an appropriations amendment to cut off funding to a Native Hawaiian housing program, without any notice to Hawai`i's delegation.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Mazie K. Hirono today rushed to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to fend off a surprise effort by Republicans to strip funding for an important Native Hawaiian housing program during consideration of the Transportation - Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill.
"Clearly, there is now a concerted and persistent attack by some Republicans in Congress on Native Hawaiian programs. This is very troubling. I will challenge attacks of this sort on programs that benefit the people of Hawai'i, including Native Hawaiians," said Congresswoman Hirono.
Speaking on the House floor, Congresswoman Hirono observed that Native Hawaiians experience significant housing problems related to affordability, overcrowding and structural inadequacy. "Nineteen thousand individuals remain on a waiting list for leases, and many of our elderly, our kupuna, have died waiting for the dream of homeownership," she said. Congresswoman Hirono cited the example of Frances Segundo, whose father first applied for Hawaiian Home Lands in 1949. Her father passed away two years ago, and she claimed the lease awarded for the second phase of a Department of Hawaiian Home Lands project in Kapolei in 2006 - 57 years after her father had applied.
Today the House voted overwhelmingly to defeat an amendment proposed by a Republican that would have eliminated all funding for the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant. The block grant helps provide affordable housing for Native Hawaiian families who are eligible to reside on Hawaiian Home Lands, which were established in trust by the United States in 1921 under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.
Congresswoman Hirono noted that today's attempt to strip funding for Native Hawaiians follows similar Republican attempts during this Congress, including an earlier failed challenge to the previously uncontroversial Native Hawaiian Housing Act and an attempt last week to strike education funds for Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill.
Congresswoman Hirono added, "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 interest of all the people of Hawai'i and indeed our nation. I will continue to be a strong advocate on behalf of Native Hawaiians and all the people of Hawai'i."
Perhaps understandably still upset over the GOP's duplicity in March, Abercrombie followed Hirono to the House floor on Tuesday and was blunt in his commentary about the amendment offered by the smirking Westmoreland:
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Hawaii is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Chairman, apparently we are going to have to come to the floor over and over on this. I would appreciate it if the gentleman from the Eighth District of Georgia representing the people in Grantville, who I presume have more courtesy than the gentleman from that district has, could let us know besides the smirk on his face when he intends to come and attack someone else in another district. I don't know how you were raised; I know how I was raised.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE ACTING CHAIRMAN
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Chair would remind the gentleman to address his remarks to the Chair.
Mr. ABERCROMBIE. I am confining my remarks to the Chair, because if I was saying it directly to the gentleman, he would know it a lot more physically.
Now, the way I was raised, when you have something to say to somebody, you come and say it to their face. Now, if the gentleman would like to accompany me sometime out to Hawaii, I will introduce him to some of these folks that he is attacking today.
This act was established by the Congress, and every single dollar and every single item associated with that has been set forth by the Congress over time. The President of the United States, Republican or Democrat, including this President, has put these funds in the budget in order to meet the obligations of the contract.
Again, Mr. Chairman, I am not familiar with how the gentleman from the Eighth District of Georgia handles contracts, but we honor them where I come from.
There is 200,000 acres set aside, and the original legislation states as follows, section 1065-569, I commend to the gentleman's attention: ``Congress does not extend services to Native Hawaiians because of their race, but because of their unique status as the indigenous people of a once sovereign nation as to whom the United States has established a trust relationship.''
The Admissions Act that brought us into the Union as the 50th State says specifically that, with regard to these lands, the Hawaiian Homes Lands, that they are to be administered by the State of Hawaii and the United States ``for the betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians as defined under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920.'' And it goes on from there to cite what is involved.
Now, the block grant program provides funds for infrastructure to help Native Hawaiians obtain mortgages on lands set aside for them from Congress. Because of the conditions set out by the Congress, ordinary financing is not available to them. This is why we have to do it. If the gentleman had had the courtesy to sit down for 2 minutes with us, we could have explained what this was about.
A decision has to be made here. Of course we have to come and defend our programs. Everybody does. I am quite content to do that.
But this is the first time ever in my experience, my legislative experience of more than 33 years, that this kind of thing has taken place.
Now, I know you folks over there. I'm looking at friends of mine right here. You would never have, me or Ms. Hirono would never do this kind of thing to you. If you have a disagreement about it, come and see us. Let's sit down and talk about it. And if you still disagree with what we're doing and why we're doing it, by all means bring it to our attention on the floor. But these kinds of attacks are unworthy of this House. It's unworthy of us to have relationships with one another like this. I don't understand it. I've never experienced it before.
Now, we can do this in 5-minute segments if we want to, but that's not the way to handle this. I appeal to you, if this is going to be a continuing onslaught, let's sit down and talk it over.
This legislation, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands is one of the most effective housing efforts that we have in order to try and meet the conditions that were set forth by the Congress and administered faithfully by the State of Hawaii since our entrance to the Union in 1959.
The House supported reauthorization of this program; 272 Members, including 45 Republicans, voted for it. It is not a partisan issue.
And I'll finish with this, Mr. Chairman. The Republican Governor and the Republican Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate in Hawaii, as well as the Democrats, support this program. It is not a partisan issue.
And so I ask, out of courtesy for Members, that if we're going to have a discussion about this, at least let's have it on the merits of what the issue is before us. And if we're going to do this kind of thing, at least have the courtesy, the common courtesy that should be extended to any Member of House, to let us know that it's happening so perhaps, Mr. Chairman, we could resolve the issue beforehand.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WELDON of Florida. I'm happy to yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Chairman, I missed in the rule book where you needed to call any Member or anything to discuss an amendment that you might have, and I apologize for not reading that chapter in the rule book.
And, Mr. Chairman, I think I was raised very appropriately from a family that had to watch their money. My father worked two jobs. He was an Atlanta firefighter, and he worked shifts. In one week he'd be gone, work at the fire department during the day and then he'd be home at night. And then the next week he worked surveying during the day and the fire station at night, so we didn't see him for a week at a time. And he would watch every dollar that he had, and I think he did a great job in raising me and my sister and providing for our family.
He never really asked for anything from the government, and so I guess that I'm very careful about some of the ways that we spend our money, and especially when it is on a program that I look at as a set-aside program. And whether the gentleman from Hawaii or the lady from Hawaii look at it as a set-aside or not, I don't know. That's their right. And I understand that they may know some things that I don't know. And I can just look at this as a Member of Congress and look at see what the Congresses have done in the past.
And for some reason, Mr. Chairman, the tendency for the majority party now is to tell me and other Members that stand up here and try to look after the taxpayers' dollars what the Republicans did. I don't care what the Republicans did. What they did, what other people did in the past doesn't make what we're doing today right or wrong.
And so all I'm doing is bringing up the point that this is a set-aside for somebody, for a group of people that are not Native Americans. They're not an Indian tribe. This is a race group, and that's as simple as it is.
Now, we can argue all the points that we want to argue, and the learned gentleman from Hawaii is a very smart guy. I know he's probably a doctor in sociology. And he can come down here and talk negatively about me if he wants to. That's his prerogative.
But I was asking a learned defense attorney one day, I said, you know, what does it feel like to have a client that you're trying to defend, and all the information and the facts are against you?
He said, you know what, you just have to really get up and talk as loud as you can and really be as mad as you can and really talk about anything other than the facts. And I know I've seen that on a couple of occasions here from different people.
And so all I'm asking is that we have a chance, in this House, to vote on this amendment. And I think it's fair that we vote on this amendment; that we vote on this amendment to try to decide if we want to give another $8.7 million, and regardless of what they've gotten from the Republican Congress since 2002, that we could start anew. And so I think it's worthwhile that we can offer an amendment that we can have a vote on trying to take a special set-aside for a racial group to have something different than the rest of the people in this country have.
As a Hawai`i resident, I'm proud that our Congressional Representatives are so strong in their efforts to fight the GOP's hostility to Native Hawaiians and are undeterred in their efforts to seek justice for the Hawaiian community.