Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996

Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act of 1996

Long title	An act to provide Federal assistance for Indian tribes in a manner that recognizes the right of tribal self-governance, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	NAHASDA
Enacted by	the 104th United States Congress
Effective	September 1, 1997
Citations
Public law	Public Law 104–330
Statutes at Large	110 Stat. 4016
Codification
Acts amended	Housing Act of 1937
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 3219 by Rick Lazio (R–NY) on March 29, 1996 Committee consideration by House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity Passed the House on September 28, 1996 (voice vote) Passed the Senate on October 3, 1996 (unanimous consent) Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 26, 1996
Major amendments
Public Law 106–569
United States Supreme Court cases
Arakaki v. Lingle (2002)

The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (NAHASDA)^[1] simplifies and reorganizes the system of providing housing assistance to federally recognized Native American tribes to help improve their housing and other infrastructure. It reduced the regulatory strictures that burdened tribes and essentially provided for block grants so that they could apply funds to building or renovating housing as they saw fit. This was in line with other federal programs that recognized the sovereignty of tribes and allowed them to manage the funds according to their own priorities. A new program division was established at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that combined several previous programs into one block grant program committed to the goal of tribal housing. The legislation has been reauthorized and amended several times since its passage.