NLIHC Joins Native Leaders in Urging White House and Congress to Defend the CDFI Fund

By Kayla Blackwell, NLIHC Senior Housing Policy Analyst and Sarita Kelkar, NLIHC Policy Intern  

NLIHC joined a Native CDFI Network (NCN) letter urging Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russel Vought, White House officials, Treasury Secretary Bessent, and U.S. Congressmembers to reevaluate the termination of the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund and maintain its operations and funding.  

The CDFI Fund, established in 1994, created financial institutions with the specific purpose of serving economically disadvantaged people and communities: offering financial and technical assistance that conventional financial institutions have left unbanked. As of October 10th, all CDFI staff received termination notices, indicating the Fund’s closure. This action by the Trump Administration leaves no vehicle to award and distribute previously appropriated funding, significantly threatening Native CDFIs who will be cut off from support provided by the Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program—one of eight CDFI Fund programs. Native CDFIs fill a crucial gap: “46% of Indian Country is considered a banking desert—12 times the national rate.” With nearly 100 Treasury-certified and emerging Native CDFIs across the country, the Fund’s termination directly harms Native recipients—exacerbating economic and rural distress and voiding an essential effort created to address existing limited resources. 

These efforts directly contradict a history of bipartisan support that demonstrates how essential the CDFI Fund is. The letter points to how staff termination and Fund abolishment:  

• Disregards Congress’s clear legislative intent to sustain the CDFI Fund, where the NACA Program received $28 million in funding from Congress to award to Native CDFIs for FY 25 and is on course to receive $35 million from Congress for FY 26;  

• Runs counter to the current bipartisan congressional push to expand and make permanent the highly successful USDA Section 502 Native Relending Program, enhancing Native CDFI’s proven ability to deploy homeownership loans across Indian Country; and 

• Conflicts with the statutory status of the Fund and its programs, affirmed by Treasury Secretary Bessent in March 2025.  

Moreover, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, released a recent statement on the Fund’s undermining, speaking to her own effort in working with Republicans to secure $3 billion for the Fund in 2020. These statements reveal the extent to which the Fund is needed and the devastating consequences of removing the Fund will have on countless individuals who live in low-income and underserved communities. Urging for additional oversight and the maintenance of appropriations, NCN’s letter argues for the reinstallation of the Fund’s staff and continued support for Native community and economic development across the U.S.  

Read the NCN letter here.  

Learn more about the CDFI Fund here.