Senate passes bill to speed lending on tribal lands

A bill aimed at improving the speed at which mortgages get approved for Indigenous borrowers seeking to finance homes on tribal lands passed the Senate unanimously this week.

Sen. John Thune, R.-S.D., was the sponsor of the proposed legislation, which would add response times for the completion of title status reports and facilitate greater use of technology in processing. Sen. Mike Rounds, R.-S.D.; Sen. Tina Smith, D.-Wyo.; Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R.-Wyo.; Sen. Jon Tester, D.-Mont.; and Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D.-N.M. co-sponsored the bill.

Loans on U.S. tribal lands can be more challenging and slower to execute than typical mortgages because the properties involved are held in public trusts and have to be secured by a leasehold interest rather than real estate.

Financial industry regulators like Michael Hsu, acting Comptroller of the Currency, have identified a need for more access to homeownership on tribal lands as part of efforts to make access to housing more equitable, and delays in the BIA's response times for title status reports have been a longstanding frustration for the constituencies of legislators representing states with tribal lands.

To address these concerns, the Tribal Trust Land Homeownership Act sets some timelines for responses from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has a division that oversees tribal land titles and records offices. 

The bill also would make a trust asset and accounting management system maintained by the Bureau of Indian Affairs available to tribes and other relevant federal agencies on a read-only basis.

"It is essential that Native people have equal access to mortgage transactions, just like any other citizen in this country," said Chelsea Fish, executive director, National American Indian Housing Council, in a press release supporting the bill.

The Mortgage Bankers Association also welcomed the bill's passage.

"This important legislation will reduce or eliminate BIA processing delays, thereby improving access to credit," said Bill Killmer, senior vice president of legislative affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association, in a separate press release.