[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 153 (Thursday, September 28, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S14559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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SUPPORT OF FUNDING FOR THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FINANCIAL INSTITUTION 
                              FUND [CDFI]

 Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise today to join my esteemed 
colleague from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, to express my concern that by voting 
for final passage of H.R. 2099, we in the Congress are voting to 
eliminate funding for the Community Development Financial Institution 
Fund [CDFI]. The CDFI fund was established in the Community Development 
Banking and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994--an Act which passed the 
Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support. In fact, this body voted 
unanimously for the measure, which sought to stimulate community 
lending and empower local communities by increasing access to credit 
and investment capital.
  But Mr. President, I stand before you to offer another perspective on 
the importance of the CDFI fund, and that is the significant potential 
it holds for improving the economic conditions in Native American 
communities. Native American communities face some of the harshest 
living conditions in this country, leading some to draw comparisons 
with conditions in Third-World countries. Fifty-one percent of native 
American families living on reservations live below the poverty line, 
with unemployment rates on some reservations as high as 80 percent. 
Moreover, a recent study conducted by the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development found that over half of American Indian and Alaska 
Native families live in substandard housing, compared to the national 
average of 3 percent; 27 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native 
households are overcrowded or lack plumbing or kitchen facilities, 
compared to a national average of 5.4 percent; and approximately 40 
percent of Native households were overcrowded, compared to a national 
average of 5.8 percent.
  Mr. President, these conditions, under any circumstances, are 
unacceptable. And it is even more unacceptable that we in the Congress 
would turn our backs on an innovative program which would stimulate 
economic activity in these communities by leveraging private sector 
resources into permanent self-sustaining locally controlled 
institutions. Each $1 million in the fund would have a substantial 
impact, and could create 65 to 135 new jobs; provide 100 loans to 
micro-enterprises and self-employment ventures; assist 20 first-time 
homebuyers; or construct 20 units of low-income housing. It is my 
understanding that there are at least 13 Indian controlled financial 
institutions which would be eligible for assistance from the fund, and 
an additional 16 tribal entities that have expressed an interest in 
becoming CDFI's.
  Earlier this year, I joined Senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell and 
McCain in sponsoring a bill, the Native American Financial Services 
Organization Act [NAFSO], which emanated from recommendations of the 
congressionally chartered Commission on American Indian, Alaska Native, 
and Native Hawaiian Housing, and from a multi-agency Federal working 
group with tribal input, and was designed to dovetail with the CDFI 
fund, with NAFSO serving as a technical assistance provider to a second 
tier of primary lending institutions, or Native American Financial 
Institutions. The elimination of funding for the CDFI fund will have 
devastating ramifications for this NAFSO proposal.
  Mr. President, I realize full well the climate within which we 
operate today, and that we in the Congress must exercise great fiscal 
restraint. And I commend the outstanding efforts of my esteemed 
colleagues, the chairman of the VA-HUD appropriations subcommittee, Mr. 
Bond, and the ranking member, Senator Mikulski, for producing a bill 
under these constraints--a bill which attempts in many ways to address 
the housing needs of Indian country. I only wish to point out that we 
in the Congress must ever be cognizant of our national responsibilities 
to the native people of this Nation, and that we must endeavor to 
improve the conditions under which the vast majority of our Native 
families live.
  I feel compelled to take note of the irony that over the last few 
days, within the context of drastic reductions to funding for Indian 
tribal governments under the Interior Appropriations bill, that one of 
the justifications offered for these severe reductions was that tribal 
governments must become less dependent on Federal resources and more 
self-sufficient. And yet, today, we are poised to eliminate funding for 
the Community Development Financial Institution Fund--a fund which 
could have made tremendous strides in enabling tribal governments to 
realize greater economic independence.
  Mr. President, I thank you for this time, and I thank my colleague 
from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, for his leadership on these matters.

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