[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
MEMBER DAY HEARING
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VIRTUAL HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
APRIL 27, 2021
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Printed for the use of the Committee on Financial Services
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Serial No. 117-18
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U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
44-666 PDF WASHINGTON : 2021
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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES
MAXINE WATERS, California, Chairwoman
CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York PATRICK McHENRY, North Carolina,
NYDIA M. VELAZQUEZ, New York Ranking Member
BRAD SHERMAN, California FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York BILL POSEY, Florida
DAVID SCOTT, Georgia BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri
AL GREEN, Texas BILL HUIZENGA, Michigan
EMANUEL CLEAVER, Missouri STEVE STIVERS, Ohio
ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado ANN WAGNER, Missouri
JIM A. HIMES, Connecticut ANDY BARR, Kentucky
BILL FOSTER, Illinois ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas
JOYCE BEATTY, Ohio FRENCH HILL, Arkansas
JUAN VARGAS, California TOM EMMER, Minnesota
JOSH GOTTHEIMER, New Jersey LEE M. ZELDIN, New York
VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas BARRY LOUDERMILK, Georgia
AL LAWSON, Florida ALEXANDER X. MOONEY, West Virginia
MICHAEL SAN NICOLAS, Guam WARREN DAVIDSON, Ohio
CINDY AXNE, Iowa TED BUDD, North Carolina
SEAN CASTEN, Illinois DAVID KUSTOFF, Tennessee
AYANNA PRESSLEY, Massachusetts TREY HOLLINGSWORTH, Indiana
RITCHIE TORRES, New York ANTHONY GONZALEZ, Ohio
STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts JOHN ROSE, Tennessee
ALMA ADAMS, North Carolina BRYAN STEIL, Wisconsin
RASHIDA TLAIB, Michigan LANCE GOODEN, Texas
MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania WILLIAM TIMMONS, South Carolina
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, New York VAN TAYLOR, Texas
JESUS ``CHUY'' GARCIA, Illinois
SYLVIA GARCIA, Texas
NIKEMA WILLIAMS, Georgia
JAKE AUCHINCLOSS, Massachusetts
Charla Ouertatani, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on:
April 27, 2021............................................... 1
Appendix:
April 27, 2021............................................... 5
WITNESSES
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Moore, Hon. Gwen, a Representative in Congress from the State of
Wisconsin...................................................... 2
APPENDIX
Prepared statements:
Cohen, Hon. Steve, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Tennessee......................................... 6
McGovern, Hon. James P., a Representative in Congress from
the State of Massachusetts................................. 8
Moore, Hon. Gwen, a Representative in Congress from the State
of Wisconsin............................................... 12
MEMBER DAY HEARING
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Tuesday, April 27, 2021
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Financial Services,
Washington, D.C.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 12:03 p.m., via
Webex, Hon. Maxine Waters [chairwoman of the committee]
presiding.
Members present: Representatives Waters, Himes, Axne,
Lynch, Garcia of Texas, Williams of Georgia; and McHenry.
Chairwoman Waters. Thank you very much. The Committee on
Financial Services will come to order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
recess of the committee at any time.
As a reminder, I ask all Members to keep themselves muted
when they are not being recognized by the Chair. The staff has
been instructed not to mute Members except when a Member is not
being recognized by the Chair and there is inadvertent
background noise. Members are also reminded that they may only
participate in one remote proceeding at a time. If you are
participating today, please keep your camera on, and if you
choose to attend a different remote proceeding, please turn
your camera off.
I will now recognize myself for 5 minutes to give an
opening statement.
Today, the committee will hear from Members of the House on
matters of interest to them, pursuant to Section 3(a) of House
Resolution 8, which requires each standing committee to hold a
hearing at which it receives testimony from Members, Delegates,
and Resident Commissioners on proposed legislation within its
jurisdiction. The committee welcomes Members to discuss their
priorities for this Congress.
I will now recognize the ranking member of the committee,
the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. McHenry, for 5 minutes.
Mr. McHenry. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and I am grateful
for the opportunity to hear from a wide array of our Members of
Congress, and the feedback for the committee, I think, will be
quite helpful and constructive. I know, in particular,
Congresswoman Moore is a strong advocate for native
populations, and we are very interested to hear her testimony
on NAHASDA and the reforms we need to make. So thank you, Madam
Chairwoman. Thank you for holding this hearing. And I think it
is good for our committee to hear from a wide array of Members,
not just those who are seated on our committee, and that is why
Members Day is such a nice and important thing.
So with that, I yield back.
Chairwoman Waters. I want to thank all of the Members for
coming to us today to share their perspective with the
committee. You are all most welcome, and you will each have 5
minutes.
We will first hear from the gentlewoman from Wisconsin, a
former member of the committee, Ms. Moore. Ms. Moore, you are
recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE GWEN MOORE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN
Ms. Moore. Thank you so much, Chairwoman Waters and Ranking
Member McHenry, for the opportunity to come and testify today
before the House Committee on Financial Services. It is very
much a homecoming for me, as I served on this committee for 14
wonderful years, and I still have not lost my passion for
housing, and insurance, and all of the things that we have
done. We had a lot of late nights, a lot of locking horns, but
also a lot of bipartisanship, and good memories, and good
friends, and maybe just a little bit of PTSD from the financial
crisis. But I tell people, Madam Chairwoman, that I have a
graduate degree from the finest financial markets program in
the country, the University of Maxine Waters and Barney Frank.
When I served, I worked on many of these issues: insurance;
derivatives; State and local finance; international issues;
consumer protection; export trade financing; Federal Reserve
oversight; low-income housing; and, yes, Mr. McHenry, native
housing. And I sleep well knowing that those legacy issues are
in wonderful hands with not only great Democratic champions,
but also bipartisan partners to work with. And I sleep well
knowing that we have a dream team in the Administration with
Secretary Fudge at HUD and Secretary Yellen at Treasury. And I
know that this committee will have a robust examination of GSE
reform, the Housing Trust Fund, affordable housing initiatives,
and other important issues.
Madam Chairwoman, today I want to focus my testimony on
housing, specifically native housing and the Native American
Housing and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA). In recognition of
both tribal sovereignty and the trust obligations to native
people, under the United States Constitution, this very
committee created NAHASDA in 1996 to provide tribes with block
grants for low-income housing programs in Indian Country. And I
began working on this legislation in 2012 with a wonderful
bipartisan coalition, and it passed the House twice, in 2012
and 2015, only to--guess what happened--stall in the Senate
both times. They say the third time is the charm.
Reauthorization of NAHASDA is way overdue, so please let me
urge the members of this committee to listen to our brothers
and sisters in the first nations and take up this important
legislation.
We are all very familiar with the broader crisis of
affordable housing throughout much of the United States, in
rural areas, in urban areas, but the dearth of decent,
affordable housing in Indian Country is really most acute. And
if you have any doubts about this need, you can read the 2014
GAO report, ``Native Housing: Additional Actions Needed to
Better Support Tribal Efforts,'' for yourself, as some of the
obstacles and conditions faced by native people are nothing
short of appalling. And my plea is that we all put aside
partisanship and take our cues from Indian Country on how to
enhance and improve NAHASDA for the benefit of the 574
federally-recognized tribes.
I just want to give some closing thoughts because I am
chastened by the gavel. First, Native Americans are a political
class under the law and not an ethnic identity. Second, native
Hawaiians are a conquered indigenous people and are properly
recognized under NAHASDA, which has, of course, been one of the
sticking points.
And third, we have had an ongoing issue around the five so-
called civilized tribes who once held slaves, and one of those
tribes was the Cherokee Tribe. If we are going to address the
issue of native freedmen in NAHASDA, I pray that we do it in a
way that is responsive to the issue, realizing that the courts
have sided with the freedmen, and the Cherokee are implementing
steps towards recognizing those freedmen, and that we do that
while we respect the trust obligation we all have to tribal
nations.
I just want to thank you for hearing me out. I am
available, Madam Chairwoman, for any questions that the
committee may have.
[The prepared statement of Representative Moore can be
found on page 12 of the appendix.]
Chairwoman Waters. Thank you very much, Congresswoman. I do
appreciate your presence here today, and thank you for coming
and sharing your thoughts with us.
Ms. Moore. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
Chairwoman Waters. You are so welcome. Thank you. So do we
have any other Members who are prepared to give testimony on
their concerns?
[No response.]
If we have no further Members who are expected to testify,
then we will simply ask if any of the Members have any
questions for our witness. Is Ms. Moore still on the platform?
[No response.]
If there are no further questions, and no further Members
seeking to testify, I would like to thank the Member who has
appeared before the committee for their testimony today, and
that is Ms. Moore.
Without objection, all Members will have 5 legislative days
within which to submit extraneous materials to the Chair for
inclusion in the record.
Ladies and gentlemen, this hearing is adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 12:12 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
April 27, 2021
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