WASHINGTON — The U.S. House today gave final approval to a bill that benefits Native Hawaiians and Honolulu’s rail transit project.

The 2010 Transportation and Housing & Urban Development appropriations bill approved today funds the U.S. Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.

The funding includes $12 million for Native Hawaiian housing block grants, administered by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to increase affordable housing on Hawaiian homelands available to low-income Native Hawaiian families. The legislation also contains $1 million for a Native Hawaiian Housing Loan Guarantee Fund. That $1 million leverages more than $41 million in actual home loans by low-income borrowers. The Native Hawaiian Housing funds were requested by U.S. Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Mazie K. Hirono.

The transportation funding in the bill also includes $4 million for Honolulu’s rail transit project. Abercrombie requested the funds for preliminary engineering, the final environmental impact statement and final project design. Federal funds are expected to cover as much as 40 percent of the project’s total cost.