{"id":817678,"date":"2026-09-16T15:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T20:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=817678"},"modified":"2026-09-16T16:47:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T21:47:50","slug":"senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-takes-up-native-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2026\/09\/16\/senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-takes-up-native-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Committee on Indian Affairs takes up Native housing"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Cherokee<\/a>
Leaders of the Cherokee Nation visit a construction site of a home for skilled workers on the reservation in Oklahoma on March 10, 2026. Photo: Anadisgoi \/ Cherokee Nation<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs takes up Indian housing<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, September 16, 2026<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Senate Committee on Indian Affairs<\/a> is returning to work by taking a closer look at housing needs in Native communities.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe committee is holding an oversight hearing and legislative hearing on Wednesday afternoon<\/a>. Lawmakers and witnesses will focus on improving housing in American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMore specifically, the legislative hearing comes after the introduction of S.5354<\/a>, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Modernization Act of 2026. \r\nSen. Lisa Murkowski<\/a> (R-Alaska), the Republican chair of the committee, introduced the bill on August 6 to update and reauthorize the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act<\/a>, the federal law commonly known as NAHASDA.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Indian\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\tIndian Country housing bill in limbo as self-determination law marks major anniversary\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t
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Efforts to update an Indian housing law that expired more than a decade ago continue to face setbacks on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\"Indianz.Com\"\t\tIndianz.Com\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nNAHASDA expired in September 2013 but Congress has failed to update it. Indian Country was also left out of a housing modernization bill that became law in July.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe oversight hearing and legislative hearing take place at 2:30pm Eastern in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. A webcast is available at indian.senate.gov<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n The witness list follows:\r\n

<\/p> \r\nThe Honorable Bryan Warner [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nDeputy Principal Chief
\r\nCherokee Nation
\r\nTahlequah, Oklahoma\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMs. Hilary Atkin [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nActing Deputy Assistant Secretary for Native American Programs
\r\n Office of Public and Indian Housing
\r\nDepartment of Housing and Urban Development
\r\nWashington, DC\r\n

<\/p>\r\nDr. Alicia Puente Cackley [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nDirector, Financial Markets and Community Investment
\r\nGovernment Accountability Office
\r\nWashington, DC\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe hearing is the committee’s first in Washington, D.C., since the U.S. Senate went on an extended break in early August. A roundtable on prediction markets took place on August 4<\/a> following by a business meeting on pending legislation on August 5<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nDuring the August break, the committee hosted two roundtables in Hawaii. The August 26 session focused on housing<\/a> while an August 27 session<\/a> looked at the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act<\/a> (NAGPRA).\r\n

<\/p>\r\nSen. Brian Schatz<\/a> (D-Hawaii), the Democratic vice chair of the committee, is from Hawaii.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice<\/div>\r\nOversight Hearing entitled, \u201cExamining Housing Needs in Native Communities,\u201d and Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on S. 5354, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Modernization Act of 2026<\/a> (September 16, 2026)\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Related Stories<\/div>\r\n
Indian Country housing bill in limbo as self-determination law marks major anniversary<\/a> (July 28, 2026)<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is returning to work by taking a closer look at housing needs in Native communities.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":817742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20,13,14],"tags":[5366,7615,925,1961,77,346,94,386,834,7614,696,1217,211,794,1258,653,85,7679,213,91],"class_list":["post-817678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-trust","category-law","category-politics","tag-119th","tag-alicia-puente-cackley","tag-brian-schatz","tag-bryan-warner","tag-cherokee","tag-dc","tag-democrats","tag-gao","tag-hawaii","tag-hilary-atkin","tag-housing","tag-hud","tag-lisa-murkowski","tag-nagpra","tag-nahasda","tag-native-hawaiian","tag-republicans","tag-s-5354","tag-scia","tag-senate","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-3qIm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/16\/CherokeeNationHousing.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817678"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":817894,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817678\/revisions\/817894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}