Amelia Schafer
ICT
John Hoffman spent just shy of three decades of his life working for the federal government.
The Southern Cheyenne man spent four years as an active duty member of the U.S. military followed by two years in Texas in an engineering service unit and 22 years of service as a grants specialist for the Indian Health Service.
He uprooted his life for the job with IHS, moving from Dallas, Texas, to the Washington, D.C. metro area to work at IHS headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.
But things changed in 2025.
A job that once seemed to be one of the most stable in the nation was now one of the most volatile, Hoffman said. Especially when the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, served reduction-in-force notices to 2,200 IHS workers – only for the Department of Health and Human Resources to reinstate their positions a day later.
Hoffman also began to worry his identity as a Native American made him a target for diversity, equity and inclusion “crackdowns” by the Trump administration.
“I was the only Native American in [my] office,” Hoffman said. “Being the only Native American in office, with them targeting DEI hires, that was forefront in my mind as well. Because we have that special class within Indian Health Services in hiring preference.”
Though he’d been spared from the quickly rescinded layoffs, he began to worry about just how stable his job really was.
“I was unsure of what lay ahead, basically,” Hoffman said. “I didn’t want to continue with the federal service with uncertainty, especially working all these years and not knowing if I’d hit retirement age. If early retirement’s being offered, I might as well go ahead and take it versus, you know, maybe two, three months later being RIF’d or let go.”
So when an email from the Office of Management and Business titled “Fork in the Road” hit federal worker’s emails on Jan. 28 with an opportunity for early retirement, Hoffman took it, and he wasn’t alone. Two others in his department accepted the Voluntary Early Retirement Agreement and one accepted the resignation offer, leaving four people in the Division of Grant’s Management Department.
In all, more than 1,000 Indian Health Service employees have left the department in 2025, either through early retirement offers or voluntary terminations, and the Health and Human Services Department hasn’t recovered from it, said National Indian Health Board Chief Executive Officer A.C. Locklear, Lumbee, during a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on Oct. 29.
The National Indian Health Board is a tribally led organization dedicated to advancing the health of all tribal citizens.
IHS has been able to fill 500 vacant positions, with an additional hire in the Grants Department since Hoffman left. However, IHS is facing its lowest offer acceptance rate in history and has a 30 percent overall vacancy rate. IHS is staffed with 15,000 employees which includes federal workers, civil service, and United States Public Health Service Commissioned Officers, according to its website.
Hoffman’s last day was in April, when he and half of the IHS Grants Department packed up and left, leaving just four people responsible for all IHS grant operations across Indian Country.
“My director kept telling us some of you are going to have to go and we’re going to start letting people, let folks, go,” Hoffman said.
And during the shutdown despite staying open with advance appropriations, IHS can’t hire any new employees, Locklear said.
“These losses translate into preventable deaths in tribal communities across the rest of HHS,” Locklear said. “And hiring freezes have further reduced the workforce the tribes rely on for grant management and critical technical assistance at the community.”
After leaving IHS on April 18, Hoffman said he moved back to Hammon, Oklahoma, to be with his tribe, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. From Oklahoma, he stays in contact with his former colleagues and those still working in the grants department, where things are just as shaky as when he left.
The Trump administration’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget impacts the way IHS delivers grants. The budget proposal outlines broad changes to the Department of Health and Human Services, including elimination of critical tribal health programs, according to the National Indian Health Board.
Trump’s budget creates a new agency in the Department of Health and Human Services called the Administration for Healthy America. The new agency will take responsibility for many tribal programs including mental and behavioral health, maternal health, primary care, HIV treatment and prevention while also absorbing the entire Office of Minority Health.
While the budget includes $80 million for the Behavioral Health and Substance Use Disorder for Native Americans program, cuts includes $60 million from the Tribal Opioid Response Grants; $22.75 million in Tribal Behavioral Health Grants; $23.665 million from Tribal Behavioral Grants for Substance Abuse treatment; $14.5 million from Medication-Assisted Treatment for Prescription and Opioid Addiction; and a $3.4 million tribal set-aside for the Zero Suicide program.
The NIHB warns that while the FY26 budget includes new initiatives and reorganizations which could streamline health services, it also proposes alarming cuts to foundational tribal health programs. Overall, these changes could undermine federal obligations to tribal nations and risk worsening health disparities in Indian Country.
“NIHB urges Congress and the Administration to uphold the trust and treaty responsibilities by restoring and protecting funding for tribal public health and healthcare programs,” the NIHB said in a blog post.
In the grants department, employees had already worried about losing grants not supported by the administration’s agenda, Hoffman said.
“In the meantime, Indian Country doesn’t know what’s happening,” Hoffman said. “And we’re
the ones who get the grant funds. So while all this is happening, Indian Country has questions. ‘What’s going on with our grants?’ And I don’t even think they were given answers.
To this day, it seems like the IHS grant program is in limbo and it’s doing a big disservice to our tribes out here.”
In another hit to the remaining Division of Grants Management employees, staff went from an average of 100 grants managed per portfolio to 200 per portfolio.
“So they’re doing a real disservice to Indian Country,” Hoffman said.”And the director’s not meeting with the tribes, and they’re struggling.”
When he thinks about the gap his retirement left in the grants department, Hoffman said he does slightly regret his decision to leave; however, he said he recognizes he made the best decision for himself.
“Indian Country knew me, us specialists in there we talked Indian Country all day every day and it’s a shame that I’m no longer there,” Hoffman said. “I had to take the path I took.”
This story has been updated with the number of employees within the Indian Health Service and to correct the spelling of A.C. Locklear’s name. It also clarifies that the number of positions lost by IHS includes early retirements and voluntary terminations.