To one US Senate audience This week, tribal leaders from across the country have spoken against the cuts at the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
The department announced in March That he would reduce 20,000 health jobs, consolidate some of his divisions and close the regional offices. It was in response to An executive decree President Trump aimed at “optimization of workforce” through the federal government.
The hearing examined how these cuts could harm the ministry’s programs that benefit Amerindians, including childcare services, services for victims of domestic violence and the prevention of drug addiction.
“It is not only federal services,” said senator Lisa Murkowski, who chaired the hearing. “These are really critical elements of the social security net, and I think these programs support family stability, the development of the child and the basic dignity.”
One of the witnesses to the hearing was Melissa Charlie, executive director of the Native Association Fairbanks. The association provides a tribal start -up program for hundreds of children inside, offering educational and cultural activities as well as health projections and references to specialists.
The association also receives HHS funds for shelter and emergency services for survivors of domestic violence. Charlie said that more than half of their customers reported family violence last year.
“While women leave a situation of domestic violence with just clothes on their backs, they cannot afford temporary housing, not in Fairbanks, and especially in a remote Alaska,” said Charlie.
Amerindians at the national level face higher rates of violence than other groups. They also experience Some of the highest rates cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, diabetes and suicide. Their life expectancy is the weakest in the United States.
“I hate to be the first place in just like that – a chronic disease, all these negative impacts,” said Loni Grenringer, vice -president of Jamestown sence tribal council in Washington. “I want to be able to solve this problem.”
Grenringer said that disturbances in the health service and social services create more obstacles to improve the health of the Amerindians. For example, she declared that the reduction of the workforce has affected employees who have experience in work with the tribes. In addition, she said that these changes had been made without appropriate communication.
“Everyone is gone,” said Grenringer. “And all of this was done without consultation and very little warning, not only to the tribes, but also to the staff.”
The Senate hearing focused on HHS programs which are not part of the Indian Health Service, which is an agency within the ministry. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the department, had said that the Indian Health Service would be exempt from several decrees. However, the agency could face certain changes.
The Budget Proposal for the Trump Administration which became public in April $ 900 million in cuts in the Indian health service.
William “Chief Bill” Smith of the Indigenous tribe of Valdez said last month that the proposal would result in the closure of clinics, the losses of essential personnel and an increase in avoidable deaths in the native communities.
“When we talk about the budget cuts of Indian health services, these are not just budget figures, you know,” said Smith. “These are our lives.”
Smith said the federal government had bonds of treaty and confidence to ensure that Aboriginal people have access to health care.
“We paid with our lands, we paid with our health, we paid with our culture,” said Smith.
Jacoline Bergstrom is the executive director of health services at the Tanana Chiefs conference and vice-president of the association of Alaska Tribal Health Directors. She said the Indian health service is already seriously underfunded.
Bergstrom also expressed his concern idea To implement the work requirements for people on Medicaid, which is another program within the HHS. She said it would create a challenge for residents of the rural regions of Alaska where there are not enough jobs to start, and many of them are seasonal.
“All of these divisions have federal funding flows on which tribal entities, tribal health entities, count to provide a wider range of basic services,” said Bergstrom. “Any cut in one of the HHS divisions will have an impact. We simply do not know its extent at this stage.”