Federal Government Policy and Business

Perspective | Staffing, budget shortages put Indian Health Service at ‘high risk’

The Washington Post: There’s a sliver of good news for a stricken federal agency during the first alarming month of President Trump’s administration: relief from Trump’s hiring freeze for the Indian Health Service (IHS).

“This exemption is a step in the right direction,” seven Democratic senators said in a statement Friday. “Indian Health Services facilities face staff vacancy rates of 20 percent or higher, and a hiring freeze would make these challenges even more severe, further impacting access to health care and even patient health.”

Unfortunately, that step won’t necessarily improve the agency, but perhaps it will prevent it from getting even worse. The hardships for IHS and other Native American programs are already so severe that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) added them to its “high-risk list” last week, calling them “ineffectively administered.”

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