Legislation· May 2026Sponsored by John Thune (R)
Tribal Trust Land Homeownership Act of 2025
Speeds up mortgage approvals on tribal trust land by setting 10-to-30-day processing deadlines for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Tradeoff
Requires the Bureau of Indian Affairs to approve or deny residential and business mortgages within 20 days and land mortgages within 30 days. Creates a new Realty Ombudsman position to monitor compliance and handle complaints.
What's in it
Costs $2 million over 2025-2030 in discretionary spending subject to .
The $2 million is the federal cost to hire staff and process mortgage applications under new deadlines — the policy's real benefit is streamlined homeownership access for tribal members on trust land.
Passed the Senate by on December 11, 2025. The House passed it 384-40 on March 4, 2026, and the bill was signed into law on May 4, 2026.
Senate
Introduced
(Feb 25, 2025)
Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs(Feb 25, 2025)
Senate
The Committee on Indian Affairs voted to send it to the floor
Reported(Mar 5, 2025)
Committee report S. Rept. 119-60.
Senate
Passage of the bill
Passed by (Dec 11, 2025)
No individual votes were recorded.
House
Received from the Senate
Received(Dec 15, 2025)
House
On Motion to and Pass
Passed(Roll #81 · Mar 4, 2026)
384 yeanay 40House
Sent to the President
(Apr 27, 2026)
White House · Signature
Signed
Donald Trump (R)
Enacted
Became law(May 4, 2026)
- Tina Smith (D-MN)
- Mike Rounds (R-SD)
- Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
Final passage· Mar 4, 2026· 119th Congress · 2025–2027