Alaska gives back land to Native village groups.
H.R. 43 — Alaska Native Village Municipal Lands Restoration Act of 2025 · Filed by Nicholas Begich (R-AK) · Introduced Jan 3, 2025 · Signed
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill lets Village Corporations take back land. They gave it to the state if no town was set up. Village Corporations no longer must save land for towns. If they ask for land back, the state returns it. The land comes back with roads and public access.
Who it affects
Village Corporations and village residents gain land control. The state may have a harder time setting up town governments.
One thing to notice
The bill creates a deadline. Village Corporations can only reclaim land if they ask before that date.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jan 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 3, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
- Feb 4, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 412 - 1…”
- Feb 4, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Westerman moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- Jun 18, 2025 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Voice Vote. (consideration: CR S3459)”
- Jul 3, 2025 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
- Jul 7, 2025 — Signed into law · Congress.gov: “Became Public Law No: 119-23”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 4 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $100,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 8 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 41% of bills with any report.
Nicholas Begich, who sponsored the bill, received $1,039,127 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Calista Corporation — $100,000 in 2 reports
- Chenega Corporation — $0 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Village Corporations — Groups that own and manage land and resources for Alaska Native villages.
- town — A local government that runs a community.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,301 characters) on May 19, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 15, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
“Alaska gives back land to Native village groups.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr43/simple Report an error