Congressman Nick Begich’s first two bills clear Senate

Alaska Congressman Nick Begich has secured his first two legislative victories in Congress, as the US Senate passed both of his introduced bills, sending them to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature.

House Resolution 42, the Alaska Native Settlement Trust Eligibility Act of 2025, and House Resolution 43, the Alaska Native Village Municipal Lands Restoration Act of 2025, passed the House in early February with broad bipartisan support under a suspension of the rules. The Senate gave its approval to the measures on Wednesday, marking a milestone in Begich’s freshman term in the U.S. House.

Begich has been in office for just five months and 15 days and has many other pieces of legislation in the queue.

HR 42 amends federal law to ensure that certain payments made to Alaska Natives — specifically elderly, visually impaired, or disabled individuals — through Alaska Native Corporation settlement trusts are not counted against their eligibility for needs-based federal assistance programs.

The bill addresses a longstanding disparity that treated these trust distributions differently from other forms of Alaska Native Corporation shareholder benefits. By aligning settlement trust payments with existing exclusions in federal benefit determinations, the bill ensures that vulnerable Alaska Natives can receive both their rightful distributions and critical safety-net benefits.

HR 43 makes key amendments to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, specifically focusing on land conveyed by village corporations to the State of Alaska under a trust arrangement for future municipal governments.

Under the new provisions:

• Village corporations will no longer be required to convey land to the state for future municipal governments.
• Villages that previously conveyed land in trust may regain title by dissolving the trust through formal resolutions from both the village corporation and residents.
• The bill retroactively ensures that no further land conveyances are required from the date of enactment forward.

The legislation gives Alaska Native communities greater control over their lands and clarifies ambiguities that have persisted since the passage of ANCSA in 1971.

With both bills now approved by the Senate, Begich becomes one of the first members of the 119th Congress to see original legislation advance to the president’s desk. The twin bills, which address issues important to Alaska Natives and their corporations, reflect the congressman’s early focus on tribal and rural matters.

These were two early bills that Begich identified as having strong potential for bipartisan support. They were also measures previously introduced by the late Congressman Don Young, who was unable to move them forward before his passing.

So far, only one other freshman member of Congress has successfully advanced a bill this year.

With these two measures, Begich’s legislation accounts for the 19th and 20th House bills to have passed both chambers and head to the president’s desk—meaning that 10% of all passed legislation in this Congress has come from Alaska’s congressman.