Native American Home Ownership Opportunity Act of 2007

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. to mark up an original bill entitled Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007; an original bill to make technical corrections to title III of SAFETEA-LU; H.R. 1675, Preservation Approval Process Improvement Act of 2007; H.R. 1676, Native American Home Ownership Opportunity Act of 2007; S. 254, a bill to award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Constantino Brumidi; an original bill entitled the International Emergency Economic Powers Enforcement Act of 2007; and to vote on the nominations of Mr. David George Nason, of Rhode Island, to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions; Mr. Mario Mancuso, of New York, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration; Mr. Michael W. Tankersley, of Texas, to be Inspector General of the Export-Import Bank of the United States; Mr. Robert M. Couch, of Alabama, to be General Counsel of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Ms. Janis Herschkowitz, of Pennsylvania, to be a member of the board of directors of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank; Mr. David George Nason, of Rhode Island, to be a member of the board of directors of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank; and Dr. Nguyen Van Hanh, of California, to be a member of the board of directors of the National Consumer Cooperative Bank.

Committee on commerce, Science, and Transportation

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to hold a business meeting during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, at 2:30 p.m., in room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building. The purpose of this meeting will be to consider and approve S. 1300, S. 694, the nomination of David James Gribbin, IV, to be General Counsel of the United States Department of Transportation, and nominations for promotion in the United States Coast Guard.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, at 10 a.m., in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, to hear testimony on ``U.S. Preference Programs: How well do they work?''

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Rogue Online Pharmacies: The Growing Problem of Internet Drug Trafficking'' on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 10 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226.

Witness list: Francine H. Haight, Founder of Ryan's Cause, Laguna Niguel, CA; Joseph T. Rannazzisi, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Diversion Control, Drug Enforcement Administration, Arlington, VA; Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Chairman and President, National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, Former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, New York, NY; Philip B. Heymann, James Barr Ames Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Former Deputy U.S. Attorney General, Cambridge, MA; Thomas McClellan, Ph.D., Executive Director, Treatment Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate for a markup of S. 1256 ``Small Business Lending Reauthorization and Improvements Act of 2007'' on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, beginning at 2 p.m. in room 428A of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be auhorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, to hold a hearing on the nomination of Dr. Michael J. Kussman to be Under Secretary for Health of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The hearing will take place in room 562 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building beginning at 10 a.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Joint Economic Committee be authorized to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Are the Explosive Costs of Elder Care Hurting Family Finances and Business Competition?, in room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building, Wednesday, May 16, 2007, from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Special Committee on Aging be authorized to meet on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Dirksen 106 for the purpose of conducting a hearing regarding Medicare Advantage, Marketing, and Sales.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, at 10 a.m. in room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Agenda

``The State of Mercury Regulation, Science, and Technology.''

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1676) to reauthorize the program of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for loan guarantees for Indian housing.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1676, the Native American Home Ownership Opportunity Act of 2007, reauthorizing the section 184 Indian Loan Program.

Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Frank and Subcommittee Chairwoman

Waters for their hard work in making this legislation a priority and recognizing the importance of the section 184 program.

This program offers home ownership, property rehabilitation, new construction and refinance opportunities for Native Americans. The primary purpose of the section 184 program is a 100 percent loan guarantee program for Native American families seeking home ownership who are members of participating tribes; 196 federally recognized tribes participate in this program, including 24 tribes from my home State of Oklahoma. Therefore, this program works by increasing home ownership in Indian country and improving the quality of life in Indian communities. Without argument, this program increased Native American home ownership in Oklahoma and throughout Indian country across the Nation.

Section 184 is administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Native American Programs, created in 1992 to address the lack of private mortgage capital in Indian country, and authorizing HUD to guarantee loans made by private lenders to Native Americans.

The section 184 program guarantees single-family residential loans for Native American borrowers, and provides for a 100 percent guarantee of the outstanding principal and interest and payment of other necessary and allowable expenses. The flexible underwriting, low down payment, higher loan limits, loan guarantee fee, and absence of income limits make this the most affordable loan program available to tribal areas.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to thank also my friends, Congressmen Neugebauer from Texas and Renzi from Arizona for their work on this legislation and for their bipartisan effort here.

According to HUD, 4,200 loans have been guaranteed since the inception of the program, totaling $517 million. As lenders have become more comfortable with making loans secured by land in Indian country, interest in this program has only increased. My home State of Oklahoma represents 34 percent of the total loans guaranteed through section 184, thereby increasing the number of my constituents who have access to home ownership.

Again, I want to thank Chairman Frank and Subcommittee Chairwoman Waters for recognizing the importance of the section 184 program in Indian country.

Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1676, the Native American Home Ownership Opportunity Act of 2007, introduced by Congressman Boren and Congressman Renzi.

This important legislation authorizes section 184 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992, which established a loan guarantee program for Native American families, Indian Housing Authorities and federally recognized Native American tribes.

Under current law this program is authorized through 2007. This bill will reauthorize the program through 2012.

Congress established this program to provide access to private mortgage financing for Native American families, Indian Housing Authorities and federally recognized Native American tribes that could not otherwise acquire housing financing because of the unique legal status of Native American lands.

This loan guarantee under this program is used to construct, acquire, refinance or rehabilitate single-family housing located on trust land or land located in an Indian or an Alaska native area.

Section 184 of the program guarantees single family, one- to four- family units, residential loans for homes located in these Indian and Alaska native areas where land may be tribal trust, allotted individual trust or fee simple. HUD offers 100 percent guarantee on the outstanding principal and interest and payment of necessary and allowable expenses.

The flexible underwriting, low down payment, higher loan limits, low guarantee fee and the absence of income limits make this the most affordable loan program available in tribal areas.

In 2007, about $6 million was appropriated for the loan guarantee program. Consequently, CBO has estimated that H.R. 1675 will cost about $30 million over the 2008-2012 period if appropriators continue the funding at the level similar to previous years. Enacting this bill does not affect direct spending or revenues.

Madam Speaker, this legislation was approved by the Committee on Financial Services by voice vote, and I urge the passage of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, it is my honor at this time to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Renzi), who is one of the authors of this legislation and someone who has worked tirelessly for Native American issues all across the country and particularly in his home State of Arizona.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, the Native American Home Ownership Opportunity Act of 2007 is an important piece of legislation that reauthorizes this vital section 184 Native American housing program which is operated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Back in 2004, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing, chaired by former Congressman Bob Ney, held the first congressional hearing on Native American housing in the history of the United States Congress on tribal lands in Tuba City, Arizona, out west on Navajo country. And many of the folks from both sides of the aisle got together and went out there and visited the Grand Canyon and got a chance to see the Navajo Nation, the pink stones and the sands, and they got to visit the country and truly see the beauty and the conditions, but also the largest land mass of poverty in America, the size of West Virginia. And Bob Ney helped make that happen. And that hearing was important because it brought light to the challenges that face Native Americans when trying to achieve home ownership.

Native Americans, as a group, have the single lowest home ownership rate in America, less than 25 percent. And the problem is especially acute on the Navajo Nation.

So this section 184 program provides 100 percent guarantees to the outstanding principal and interest for single-family residential homes. And to date, over 4,200 loans have been guaranteed by this program. Now everybody is out there talking about subprime lending and the default and the foreclosures. Only 30 loans in this Native American program have ever been defaulted on, less than 1 percent. This low rate greatly shows the efficiency of section 184, and the program has received the highest rating of America's Office of Management and Budget, even though it doesn't need it. This year it is expected that the program will enable private lenders to finance about 1,600 new mortgages.

So I want to thank Congressman Boren of Oklahoma, Chairman Frank, who has been absolutely bipartisan and forward-thinking in pushing housing issues, particularly on Native American, Chairman Waters and the subcommittee, Chairman Biggert, and I want to thank Bob Ney for his advocacy for the poor around America and for Native American housing. If my colleagues don't think this is good, they don't know what is good.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to voice my strong support for H.R. 1676, the Native American Homeownership Opportunity Act of 2007. This important legislation reauthorizes the Section 184 Indian Loan Program, which offers home ownership, property rehabilitation, new construction, and refinance opportunities for Native Americans.

I want to thank my friend, Mr. Boren, for sponsoring this bill and championing this cause which is of great significance to so many Native families in this country.

Section 184 advances the opportunity for Native Americans seeking homeownership and addresses the issue of lack of mortgage lending for homes in Indian Country.

The Section 184 program guarantees single-family residential loans for Native American borrowers, thereby increasing the homeownership for Native Americans.

While many Native Americans struggle to own a home and provide for their families, H.R. 1676 eases that burden. The program provides a 100 percent guarantee of the outstanding principal and interest and payment of other necessary and allowable expenses.

Section 184 allows for many Native Americans to become first-time homeowners. According to HUD, since the start of the program roughly 4,200 loans have been guaranteed.

Almost 200 tribes participate in the Section 184 program nationwide, 31 of which are from my home State of California.

In the Inland Empire alone, the Saboba Band of Luiseno Indians, the Cabazon Band of Cahulla Mission Indians and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians have been able to provide homeownership for many families through this program.

H.R. 1676 will help close the homeownership gap and increase for Native Americans in my area and all across the country. Let's help all Americans achieve the dream of owning a home.

I urge my colleagues to support this important bill.