Senate Indian Affairs Committee advances Native housing rewrite to full Senate

The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved a rewrite of the federal law that funds housing in Alaska Native villages on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. The bill now heads to the full Senate after the committee adopted an amendment raising what Chair Lisa Murkowski called NAHASDA's outdated "de minimis threshold" from $5,000 to $22,500.

Murkowski's amendment also lets the Department of Housing and Urban Development set a higher amount for good cause. It makes a technical correction to one of the bill's Native Hawaiian homelessness provisions.

"In Alaska, we routinely hear about overcrowding, extraordinarily high construction costs, homelessness, and difficulties that communities face in providing housing for teachers, healthcare workers, law enforcement officers, and other essential workers who are making a little too much to qualify for some assistance programs," Murkowski said.

The bill, known as S. 5354, also lets tribes, tribally designated housing entities and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands use up to 20% of homeownership assistance for families earning up to 120% of area median income.

The amendment and the bill as amended were each agreed to by voice vote, with no recorded opposition.

Vice Chairman Brian Schatz said the measure reauthorizes the Indian Housing Block Grant Program and the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant Program through 2033. It adds lease-to-own pathways, stronger loan guarantees and support for Native veterans and unhoused American Indians, Native Hawaiians and Alaska Natives. Schatz said the programs have not been reauthorized or updated in 13 years, and the resulting uncertainty affects whether Native communities can plan and build for the long term.

Schatz said NAHASDA advanced to the full Senate in 2023 on a vote of 86 to 11, attached to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. He urged colleagues to pass it "out of the Senate for a second time." It did not become law.

One committee member said tribal nations look to Congress to pass the bill "as a sign that we truly do take our trust and treaty responsibility seriously."

Murkowski introduced the bill on Aug. 6, and the committee held a hearing on it last week. It now awaits floor time in the Senate and would still need to clear the U.S. House.

After the business meeting, the committee took testimony on four bills dealing with tribal land trusts and enrollment sovereignty, involving the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the Catawba Nation, the Pechanga Band of Indians and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.