[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 147 (Thursday, December 4, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H8368]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     NATIVE AMERICAN HOUSING ASSISTANCE AND SELF-DETERMINATION ACT

  (Mr. KILMER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KILMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4329, 
the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 
2014, which passed on Tuesday out of the House of Representatives.
  Visiting the nine tribes in the district I represent, I have seen the 
significant challenges that tribal communities face in providing decent 
and affordable housing to their members, so I know how important this 
bill is.
  One issue that I worked on very closely regards the needs of tribal 
veterans who disproportionately suffer from homelessness. Last year, I 
met a man in my district who served this Nation in uniform but was 
sleeping in his car. We can do better.
  Last year, I joined with Representative Cole to introduce the Housing 
Native Heroes Act, which would expand new authorities and flexibilities 
to a program called the HUD-VASH program, which better addresses tribal 
veterans' homelessness. I am thankful to Representative Pearce and his 
colleagues for working to include strong provisions in this bill to 
tackle homelessness among our tribal veterans.
  I look forward to continuing to work to address the needs of our 
tribal veterans, and I urge the Senate to quickly take up and pass this 
bill.

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