Mr. Ben Burshia

Chief, Division of Real Estate Services

Office of Trust Responsibilities

Bureau of Indian Affairs

1849 C Street NW, MS 4513-MIB

Washington, DC 20240

RE: 25 CFR Part 162 - Trust Management Reform: Residential and Business Leases; Proposed Rule

Dear Mr. Burshia:

The (insert tribe name here) Tribe/Housing Authority/Organization believes that a revision of current residential and business leasing procedures at the Bureau of Indian Affairs is extremely important in improving development opportunities on tribal land. We appreciate this opportunity to comment and make recommendations on your proposed regulations.

The National American Indian Housing Council has utilized the 90-day comment period to develop a comprehensive set of comments on the residential leasing regulations through a workgroup made up of representatives of tribes, tribal housing authorities, attorneys who represent tribes, and professionals involved in Indian country mortgage lending. We support the revisions to the residential leasing regulations proposed by this workgroup because they seek to: (1) protect tribal sovereignty and resist assertions of regulatory authority not mandated by Congress, (2) facilitate homeownership in Indian country by streamlining the process for approvals of leases and mortgages, and (3) clarify provisions in the proposed regulations that are confusing or ambiguous. We therefore choose to endorse the comments of the workgroup in place of submitting our own comments.

Thank you for your consideration of this endorsement and of the comments put forward by the National American Indian Housing Council.

Sincerely,

(Tribal signature)

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