Congress 'failing' survivors of disasters, says Sen. Schatz

Mar. 20—U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz had planned Tuesday to address his colleagues on the floor of the U.S. Senate about record funding for Native American communities, but first took the opportunity to say that Congress "is failing disaster survivors " in Lahaina and across the country.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz had planned Tuesday to address his colleagues on the floor of the U.S. Senate about record funding for Native American communities, but first took the opportunity to say that Congress "is failing disaster survivors " in Lahaina and across the country.

"Whether in Lahaina or in Burlington (Vt.), survivors are not getting the full support of the federal government because Congress has yet to provide funding for long-term disaster recovery needs, " he said. "Every passing month, more communities are being struck by extreme weather and need help in the rebuilding."

More than four months ago, Schatz said that President Joe Biden requested $2.8 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program, which Schatz called "a lifeline for families and businesses who are trying to recover from disasters."

"Yet the spending package that Congress passed two weeks ago did not include a dime of new funding " despite bipartisan urging from Republicans and Democrats who represent states that have suffered disasters.

Congress can still add more funding this week when it considers an appropriations bill, Schatz said.

"Supporting disaster survivors has never been, nor should ever be, a partisan issue, " he said. "It is one of our most core responsibilities as the federal government to show up for Americans in their hour of need when the state and local government is overwhelmed."

"People on Maui and every other disaster-struck community are counting on us for support, " Schatz said. "And it can't be that the federal government leaves them high and dry midway through the process of putting their lives back together because we couldn't get some numbers to add up. That's unacceptable, and we need to pass this funding now."

Schatz—who chairs both the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development—then pivoted to the rec ­ord $1.34 billion in bipartisan federal funding for Native American housing programs that was signed into law last week.

The funding represents a 30 % increase over 2023 and includes $175.5 million in new federal funding for tribal transportation.

The money will support efforts in Native American communities to build affordable housing, provide rental assistance "and get electricity and plumbing into homes, " Schatz said. "They need safe roads and accessible transit."

Tribal communities, he said, have "some of the highest poverty rates and worst living conditions in the nation. They're five times as likely to live in homes without plumbing, four times more likely to not have basic appliances like a sink, a stove or a refrigerator. And 1, 200—1, 200—times likelier to experience issues with heating. So for them this historic funding is a big deal."

He called the record money "a rare product of quiet, good-faith, bipartisan efforts ... because colleagues on both sides of the aisle, in both chambers, said, 'Whatever our other differences, we agree this is important and urgent and worth fighting for, '" Schatz said.

Bipartisan victories, he said, "don't grab the headlines in this town ... because there isn't a villain to ridicule or a controversy to editorialize on. But the federal government has a trust responsibility to American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians which we've long fallen short of. For generations, Native communities were considered as an afterthought—if at all. Today, through steps like these, bit by bit, we're saying, 'No more.'"

He called America's treatment of its Indigenous people "a brutal history spanning centuries and generations, forcibly removing Native people from their homelands, pushing children into boarding schools, robbing ancestral remains and cultural items."

"The impacts of that colonization and forced assimilation are being felt to this day, " Schatz said. "We're not going to reverse hundreds of years of injustices overnight. But it can't be that remedying those injustices—and finally doing right by Native people—takes another few centuries. It needs to start happening now."