{"id":829907,"date":"2026-09-23T14:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T19:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=829907"},"modified":"2026-09-23T14:42:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T19:42:56","slug":"senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-holds-business-meeting-and-legislative-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2026\/09\/23\/senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-holds-business-meeting-and-legislative-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds business meeting and legislative hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Senate<\/a>\r\n
A view of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building in Washington, D.C. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds business meeting and legislative hearing<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, September 23, 2026<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Senate Committee on Indian Affairs<\/a> is convening to consider a closely-watched Native housing bill and to take testimony on pending tribal legislation.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe committee is holding a business meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Only one item is on the agenda: S.5354<\/a>, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Modernization Act of 2026. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nS.5354 reauthorizes the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act<\/a>. Commonly known as NAHASDA, the federal law expired in September 2013 and Congress has yet to update it.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe committee held a hearing on S.5354<\/a> on September 16. The bill is a modified version of S.4276<\/a>, which had been introduced in the U.S. Senate<\/a> earlier in 2026.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe committee is also taking testimony on four Indian Country bills. The list follows:\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\r\nS.1750<\/a>, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Parity Act. The bill ensures that the Poarch Band of Creek Indians<\/a> can follow the land-into-trust process<\/a> in light of uncertainties<\/a> created by the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a> decision in Carcieri v. Salazar<\/em><\/a>. It also reaffirms the legality of the tribe’s prior trust land acquisitions.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nS.3859<\/a>, to amend the Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina Land Claims Settlement Act of 1993 with respect to future membership in the Catawba Indian Nation. The bill confirms that the Catawba Nation<\/a> can determine its own membership criteria by removing limiting language from a prior act of Congress.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nS.4053<\/a>, to take certain land in the State of California into trust for the benefit of the Pechanga Band of Indians, and for other purposes. The bill places about 1,261 acres in trust for the Pechanga Band of Indians<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nH.R.226<\/a>, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Historic Lands Reacquisition Act. The bill places about 76 acres in Tennessee into trust for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians<\/a>. It also creates two permanent easements, covering another 20 acres, for the tribe, headquartered in neighboring North Carolina. The U.S. House of Representatives<\/a> passed H.R.226 on February 4, 2025<\/a>.\r\n<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nA panel of tribal leaders and one U.S. government official will provide testimony on the bills. The witness list follows:\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\r\nMr. Brian Mercier [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nDirector, Bureau of Indian Affairs
\r\nDepartment of the Interior
\r\nWashington, D.C.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Honorable Stephanie Bryan [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nChairwoman
\r\nPoarch Band of Creek Indians
\r\nAtmore, Alabama\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Honorable Patricia Leach [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nAssistant Chief
\r\nCatawba Nation
\r\nRock Hill, South Carolina\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Honorable Mark Macarro [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nChairman
\r\nPechanga Band of Indians
\r\nTemecula, California\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Honorable Michell Hicks [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nPrincipal Chief
\r\nEastern Band of Cherokee Indians
\r\nCherokee, North Carolina\r\n<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe business meeting and legislative hearing are scheduled to take place at 2:30pm Eastern in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. A livestream will be available on indian.senate.gov<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice<\/div>\r\nBusiness Meeting is to consider S.5354 & Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on S. 1750, S. 3859, S. 4053, & H.R. 226<\/a> (September 23, 2026)\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Related Stories<\/div>
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs takes up Native housing<\/a> (September 16, 2026)<\/div>
Testimony: Bryan Warner, Cherokee Nation<\/a> (September 16, 2026)<\/div>
Testimony: Hilary Atkin, Department of Housing and Urban Development<\/a> (September 16, 2026)<\/div>
Testimony: Alicia Puente Cackley, Government Accountability Office<\/a> (September 16, 2026)<\/div>
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 convening to consider a closely-watched Native housing bill and to take testimony on pending tribal legislation.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":829951,"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":[20,13,1,14],"tags":[5366,589,117,5364,38,736,183,170,5965,48,696,476,186,2059,5451,1258,184,4028,1922,2256,7687,7688,7689,7613,7679,213,91,185,4985,84,2139],"class_list":["post-829907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-trust","category-law","category-national","category-politics","tag-119th","tag-alabama","tag-bia","tag-bryan-mercier","tag-california","tag-carcieri","tag-catawba","tag-congress","tag-h-r-226","tag-house","tag-housing","tag-land-claims","tag-land-into-trust","tag-mark-macarro","tag-michell-hicks","tag-nahasda","tag-north-carolina","tag-patricia-leach","tag-pechanga","tag-poarch-creek","tag-s-1750","tag-s-3859","tag-s-4053","tag-s-4276","tag-s-5354","tag-scia","tag-senate","tag-south-carolina","tag-stephanie-bryan","tag-supreme-court","tag-tennessee","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-3tTB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/23\/SenateCommitteeonIndianAffairs-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829907","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=829907"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830017,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829907\/revisions\/830017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}