Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is again complaining about the way some Alaska Native villages are receiving federal funds.

At a recent hearing, Stevens complained to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alfonso Jackson. "Your department has recognized now what I call rogue villages, and taken away from a reasonable housing authority the jurisdiction over housing and given it to, in one instance, to a group that calls themselves a village, but their traditional village is 200 miles from where they say they have the right to conduct housing," he said, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

Stevens stirred up controversy when he suggested consolidating funds for Alaska Native villages into regional entities. He later backed away from the concept, saying tribes and Native organizations are working together to share federal funds in an efficient way.

But he apparently still has concerns about the issue and said he would offer "a series of amendments" to make changes. "We can't exist this way. Your people, who never come to Alaska, sit down in the field office in California and decide what's right in Alaska. Now, that just can't go on," he said at the hearing, the paper reported.

Get the Story:
'Rogue villages' misusing funds, Stevens says (The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 5/8)
Native home-building programs getting less federal money (The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 5/8)

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