The 119th Congress is slowly but surely taking action to advance Indian Country’s legislative agenda following a less than stellar start to the session.

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to pass four pro-tribal bills on Tuesday, according to the Majority Leader’s calendar. All are being considered under a suspension of the rules, a process typically used for non-controversial legislation.

“It’s the work that you have been doing educating us over the decades that makes it possible to not just expect — but demand — that we respect tribal sovereignty,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-New Mexico) told tribal leaders last month as the National Congress of American Indians met in Washington, D.C.

“And we respect it and expect it from Democrats and Republicans alike,” noted Leger Fernández, who is the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs, the legislative panel where most tribal bills are introduced, heard and advanced on a bipartisan basis.

“These are not DEI programs. These are trust responsibilities”: Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-New Mexico) on US government’s trust and treaty obligations to tribes and their communities at National Congress of American Indians. @NCAI1944 @RepTeresaLF #DC pic.twitter.com/TWj8MRmief

— indianz.com (@indianz) February 10, 2026

But since the start of the 119th Congress in January 2025, only a couple of pieces of Indian Country legislation have managed to make it over the finish line — and only because of significant debate. The Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act [H.R.165] finally became law in December after being held hostage for years by a Republican lawmaker in connection with a completely different measure.

The Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), was eventually able to secure federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe in his home state of North Carolina, also in December. But success came only when the Lumbee Fairness Act was added to an unrelated package following years of uncertainty.

“This achievement was a true team effort,” said the retiring Tillis, who credited his staff for “breaking a decades-old legislative stalemate and making this historic moment a reality.”

With the legislative logjam supposedly cleared, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have a lot of opportunities to live up to the federal government’s trust and treaty responsibilities. More than 20 Indian Country bills are inching closer to passage, including one that is being taken up by the House on Tuesday.

The four bills being considered under a suspension of the rules follow:

• H.R.5910, a bill to allow tribes to enter into long-term leases and other agreements on their lands for up to 99 years. The measure was approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources on January 14.

• H.R.3903, the Chugach Alaska Land Exchange Oil Spill Recovery Act of 2025. The bill authorizes a land exchange between the federal government and Chugach Alaska Corporation, an Alaska Native corporation whose communities were impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill on March 24, 1989. A hearing took place before the House Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs on September 9, 2025, and the bill was approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources on November 20, 2025.

• H.R.681, a bill to allow the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to enter into long-term leases and other agreements on their lands in Massachusetts. A hearing took place before the House Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs on September 9, 2025, and the bill was approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources on November 20, 2025.

• S.723, the Tribal Trust Land Homeownership Act of 2025. The bill requires the Bureau of Indian Affairs to process residential and business mortgages on tribal lands within certain deadlines. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved the measure on March 5, 2025.

Of the four, only S.723 has already passed the U.S. Senate. Action in the House would clear the bill to be signed into law by President Donald Trump.

“As Chairman, I’m proud of our committee’s strong bipartisan work on legislation important to Native peoples,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the Republican leader of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said when S.723 was among 12 bills cleared by the Senate on December 12, 2025.

A second bill, H.R.504, the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act, also had cleared the Senate and the House. But Trump vetoed the measure after claiming that the Miccosukee Tribe in Florida obstructed his immigration agenda.

Despite widespread bipartisan support for the Republican-led bill, the House failed to override Trump’s veto. That leaves the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act and the Cape Fox Land Entitlement Finalization Act [H.R.2815] as the sole Indian Country items to have passed both chambers of Congress as standalone bills so far.

“We have so much to do, so much work to do,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota) at NCAI’s meeting last month. Like Tillis, Smith will be retiring from Congress later this year.

Indian Country could once count on Congress to pass around 20 pro-tribal bills during any particular legislative session. That was true regardless of which political party controlled the legislative branch of the United States government and regardless of the political affiliation of the occupant of the White House.

“The trust responsibility is not discretionary,” NCAI President Mark Macarro said his State of Indian Nations address on February 9. “Treaty obligations are not optional.”

“Native lives cannot be balanced against other priorities like an afterthought,” continued Macarro, who also serves as chair of the Pechanga Band of Indians from California. “The United States is fully capable of meeting its legal and moral obligations to tribal nations.”

The landscape began to change for Indian Country during the 115th Congress, which ran from 2017 to 2018. Only seven stand-alone Indian bills were signed into law during the legislative session.

Coincidentally, the same session saw the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House. Much like his veto of the bill for the Miccosukee Tribe, Trump famously derailed critical Indian Country legislation during his first term in office.