NAHASDA Modernization Clears Committee — The First Real Movement in Over a Decade
Starzyk & Associates LLC · Federal Government Affairs · Indian Country Policy
On the afternoon of September 23, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved S. 5354, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Modernization Act of 2026, by voice vote.
The pace here is worth noting. Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Vice Chairman Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced the bill on August 6. The Committee held its hearing on September 16. One week later, the bill was reported out. That is fast by Senate standards, and it signals that the Committee's leadership intends to move this before the 119th Congress runs out of calendar.
Why this matters
NAHASDA is the primary federal statute governing housing assistance in Indian Country. Congress last acted on a full reauthorization in 2007–2008, and the underlying authorization lapsed in 2013. For more than a decade, tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities have planned multi-year housing developments — construction, financing, workforce, infrastructure — without any long-term statutory certainty from Washington. Annual appropriations have kept the block grant running, but appropriations are not authorization, and the reforms tribal housing directors have been asking for have simply never been enacted.
Getting a bipartisan reauthorization out of committee puts NAHASDA modernization back in play for the first time since 2023.
What's in the bill
Reauthorization through 2033 for the Indian Housing Block Grant and the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant.
Administrative streamlining, including consolidated and streamlined environmental reviews — a longstanding ask from tribal housing authorities, and one of the most concrete cost-and-delay reductions in the package.
Expanded homeownership tools, including lease-to-own options and strengthened Section 184 loan guarantees.
Permanent authorization of Tribal HUD-VASH for Native veterans, plus new support for unhoused Native people.
A workforce-housing fix. Tribes, TDHEs, and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands could use up to 20 percent of homeownership assistance to serve families earning up to 120 percent of area median income. This is aimed squarely at the teachers, nurses, police officers, and other essential workers who earn slightly too much to qualify for assistance but cannot find housing they can afford on the reservation.
A raised de minimis threshold. A Murkowski amendment adopted at the markup raises the $5,000 de minimis procurement threshold to $22,500, and allows HUD to set a higher amount for good cause.
Why a committee vote is not a finish line
Indian Country has been here before, and recently.
In July 2023, the Senate adopted a Schatz-Murkowski NAHASDA reauthorization amendment to the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 86-11 — an overwhelming bipartisan margin on a must-pass vehicle. It was stripped in conference and never became law. A similar effort on the FY2025 NDAA also failed to survive.
That history is the reason to treat this week's vote as a beginning rather than a victory.
What happens next
The realistic goal is passage in both chambers during the lame duck session after the election. Floor time will be scarce, which means the two most likely paths are:
Unanimous consent in the Senate, which requires that no single senator place a hold — and holds are quiet, so they are best prevented rather than cured.
Attachment to a year-end vehicle, most likely an omnibus or other must-pass package.
Both paths depend on the House. The House has been the choke point in every previous NAHASDA attempt, and nothing about the current calendar changes that. House members need to hear from tribal leaders directly, in October and November, before year-end negotiations are locked.
Comments