IHS operations to continue in face of shutdown
Amelia Schafer
ICT + Rapid City Journal
RAPID CITY, SD — Indian Health Service operations will continue in the event of a government shutdown, as announced Tuesday at the annual Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee conference in Rapid City.
The weeklong conference brings together tribal leaders and federal health officials, including U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and IHS Director Roselyn Tso.
“Because of the fact that now we have advanced appropriations for Indian Health Services, on Oct. 1, whether or not there's a federal budget in place, will continue providing services,” Becerra said.
Previously, IHS employees would have to work without pay or on furlough, limiting service to the roughly 2.6 million citizens who rely on Indian Healthcare.
During the 2019 historic 35-day government shutdown, nearly 65 percent of IHS employees weren’t paid. In the event of another shutdown, all federal government operations must cease unless they are considered indispensable. Previously, the agency was not considered indispensable.
Tribes in rural areas are likely to benefit the most from continued IHS operations.
Attendees of the annual Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee conference in Rapid City on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023, display a blanket emblazoned with the Oglala Sioux Tribe flag. (Photo by Amelia Schafer, ICT and Rapid City Journal)
“Previously we would have had to leave (during a shutdown) and be saddled with bills,” Crow Creek Sioux Tribe chairman Peter Lengkeek said.
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Fort Thompson, the largest village in Crow Creek, is thirty miles from the nearest 24/7 emergency room in Chamberlain. During the last shutdown, tribal members had to travel to Chamberlain and beyond.
Aside from guaranteed operation in a shutdown, another major change discussed was the streamlining of IHS. Tso said IHS and Health and Human Services are looking at strategies to build and provide more workforce resources to tribes.
HHS is also looking to build water infrastructure and has allocated $3.5 billion to build water systems for people in tribal communities. Forty-nine percent of tribal households don’t have access to clean drinking water, reliable water sources or basic sanitation, all of which tie into healthcare and wellbeing.
“We have a lot of work to do, but we also have tremendous support not only from the White House, from the president but also from the Secretary of Reserves, who has been extremely helpful and making sure that all resources at HHS are there to support the Indian Health Service,” Tso said.
Becerra echoed Tso’s sentiments.
“I was in Congress for 24 years and I've now been secretary for almost three years. What President Biden has proposed for Indian Country far outpaces anything I had seen before from any other president,” Becerra said.
This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.
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