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- By Elyse Wild
In an advisory opinion obtained by Native News Online, the acting council for the Department of Health and Human Services, Sean R Keveny, stated that recent EOs do not apply to the Department’s legal responsibility to provide healthcare to tribal nations and their citizens. They do, however, apply to policy-based DEI programs within IHS facilities.
The opinion notes that tribal nations have unique government-to-government relationships with the United States, as codified in treaties, statutes and executive orders.
It is unclear which IHS facilities operate DEI programs.
Since taking office last month, President Donald Trump has issued more than 70 EOs. The advisory opinion explicitly points to three orders: EO 14151, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing; EO 14168, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government; and EO 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.
The orders sent waves of panic through Indian Country, as billions of federal dollars support a wide variety of basic needs in tribal communities, including healthcare, clean water, education, internet access, and more.
The IHS is tasked with providing healthcare to more than 2.8 million Alaska Natives and American Indians. The agency has long been underfunded and understaffed, with a historic vacancy rate near 30% and a budget that falls tens of billions of dollars short of its projected need. It narrowly avoided losing more than 2,000 employees earlier this month when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. rescinded layoffs at the agency.
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