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- By Elyse Wild
The Indian Health Service faces losing 2,500 employees in new federal layoffs, nearly triple initial estimates, warns the top executive of a national Native health organization. The cuts would further strain the agency responsible for providing healthcare to 2.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.
A.C. Locklear, interim CEO of the National Indian Health Board (NIHB), told Native News Online the layoffs threaten healthcare delivery across Indian Country, where IHS already struggles with a 30% vacancy rate for medical staff and other essential positions.
The cuts are part of a broader Trump administration directive ordering the termination of probationary federal workers, issued this week through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government's human resources department. The directive affects multiple agencies serving tribal nations — including the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education — as part of the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations.
While the total number of affected probationary federal workers remains unclear, OPM data shows that approximately 220,000 federal employees had been on the job for less than a year as of March 2024, according to the Associated Press.
The termination of probationary employees began earlier this week. On Wednesday, Native News Online reported the immediate dismissal of 1,000 workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Native Americans serve in the military at a rate higher than any other race. According to the VA, nearly 66,000 Native veterans use at least one VA benefit or service, including healthcare.
In a letter to Acting Director of OPM Charles Ezell, the NIHB, National Council of Urban Indian Health, National Indian Child Welfare Association and more than a dozen other organizations urged the Department of Government Efficiency, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, to exempt employees who are essential to fulfilling trust and treaty obligations the United States has to tribal nations. The letter reads in part:
The United States fulfills its trust and treaty obligations through both the direct delivery of Tribal programs and services and through provision of federal funding to Tribal Nations and Tribal organizations serving Tribal Nations. Essential services provided by Federal employees include healthcare services through IHS, law enforcement and public safety through the BIA, and educational services through the BIE—not to mention countless other essential and legally mandated services. These programs are not discretionary; they are legal obligations rooted in treaties, trust obligations, the U.S. Constitution, and long-standing federal statutes.
The IHS cuts will likely be deeper than the 850 employees initially anticipated, Locklear said. He detailed that between 14% and 18% of current IHS employees are probationary workers who could face termination. That would further strain a historically underfunded federal agency that operates on an $8.2 billion — far below the $52 billion needed to provide adequate healthcare, according to the Tribal Budget Formulation Workgroup.
The IHS currently has a 30% vacancy rate for positions ranging from doctors and nurses to custodial and IT staff. With these existing shortages, “it can have extreme impacts if those (probationary) employees were terminated.”
Locklear said past federal government shutdowns have severely affected IHS operations.
“When we were experiencing government shutdowns, clinics closed, significantly downsizing services, limiting or eliminating critical access to care has led many times to mortality in our communities,” he said.
This is a developing story.
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