- Details
- By Levi Rickert
Update: During the day on Friday, nearly 1,000 Indian Health Service (IHS) employees were laid off as part of a mass reduction across the federal government to fulfill President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Implementing the President's ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.”
The layoffs included probationary employees who had been employed by the federal government for less than two years.
By early evening, the layoffs affecting IHS employees were rescinded.
In a statement emailed to Native News Online, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., stated the Trump administration intends to prioritize the IHS.
“The Indian Health Service has always been treated as the redheaded stepchild at HHS,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “My father often complained that IHS was chronically understaffed and underfunded. President Trump wants me to rectify this sad history. Indians suffer the highest level of chronic disease of any demographic. IHS will be a priority over the next four years. President Trump wants me to end the chronic disease epidemic beginning in Indian country.”
The Trump administration responded positively, recognizing the significant healthcare needs in Indian Country.
The response came after the National Indian Health Board, the National Council of Urban Indian Health, and the National Indian Child Welfare Association sent a letter to the administration urging them to exempt employees essential to fulfilling the United States’ trust and treaty obligations 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.
This is a developing story.
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