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- By Chez Oxendine
- Real Estate
The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Modernization Act of 2026 cleared the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Wednesday, moving lawmakers a step closer to reauthorizing the federal government’s primary Native housing law for the first time in more than a decade.
The committee’s vote follows last week’s hearing, where senators heard testimony from federal officials and a Cherokee Nation leader describing overcrowded homes, rising construction costs, aging infrastructure and federal requirements that slow housing development.
The bill, led by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, would reauthorize NAHASDA through 2033, expand access to financing tools, streamline environmental reviews and strengthen support for Native veterans.
Murkowski offered an amendment to raise NAHASDA’s $5,000 de minimis threshold to $22,500 and make a technical correction to a Native Hawaiian homelessness provision. Senators adopted it by voice vote before approving the bill.
“This modernization effort will help to make homeownership and stable housing a reality for more Native families in their homelands,” Schatz said during the committee meeting.
At last week’s hearing, witnesses described structural barriers that slow development, including overlapping environmental reviews that can cost tribes entire construction seasons and income limits that can leave essential workers ineligible for housing assistance.
The bill’s House companion, introduced in March, remains in committee.
With Wednesday’s vote, the Senate bill can be taken up by the full chamber.
“Today’s action represents meaningful progress toward finally modernizing NAHASDA and giving tribal communities more of the tools and flexibility they need to address our housing challenges,” Rudy Soto, executive director for the National American Indian Housing Council, said in a statement.
At the same session Wednesday, the committee heard testimony on four other bills: one addressing the Poarch Band of Creek Indians’ status under the Indian Reorganization Act, one concerning Catawba Nation membership, and two involving land transfers for the Pechanga Band of Indians and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
