Ranking Member DeLauro Remarks at the Fiscal Year 2026 Indian Health Service Budget Hearing

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for theIndian Health Service:

Thank you, Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Pingree, for holding this hearing on the Trump Administration’s budget request for the Indian Health Service. 

Acting Director Smith and Director Curtis, I welcome you both to the House of Representatives. Thank you for appearing before the committee today. 

Let me follow up on something the Chair spoke about, and all of my colleagues so far, and that is advance funding. There are two areas in which we deal with advance funding, one is for veterans, one is for IHS. And let me just say clearly, the Chair has said there will be advance funding for IHS, and I say yes there will be, and there will be advance funding for veterans as well, because neither can get caught up in the mishegoss of the appropriations process, and what may happen. 

I will add one more footnote to what my colleague said, we have talked about IHS in Labor HHS, where I serve as Ranking Member. I am concerned that these days, with the pecking order with where Labor H stands in terms of its view of importance, for the moment you may be better off where you are. I don’t know what is going to happen with Labor HHS, but I think that it is something that ought to be discussed.

Before we turn to the budget request that in my view woefully underfunds IHS, I want to talk about what is happening now. 

The American people are demanding help with the cost of living. And President Trump is not laser focused on the cost-of-living crisis – he is actually making it worse. He promised to fight for workers and the middle class, but instead put billionaires in charge of the government. 

This Administration is attacking programs and services that protect vulnerable, disadvantaged, and underserved Americans, including Tribal communities, in order to pay for a tax cut for billionaires. We need the government to fight for those folks, for the middle class, the working class, and the vulnerable. We have an Administration doing the opposite.

Before President Trump and Elon Musk began taking a wrecking ball to the federal government, the Indian Health Service already faced chronic issues that made it difficult to meet the health care needs of Tribal communities. 

But IHS was thrown into even greater chaos in the early days of the Trump Administration. President Trump’s illegal funding freeze blocked access to IHS funds, until courts intervened and allowed the Service’s lifesaving care for Native Americans and Alaska Natives to continue. 

The hiring freeze at the Department of Health and Human Services further jeopardized lifesaving care, including emergency services, maternity care, and cancer treatments. IHS already faces enduring staffing shortages, and the Administration’s negligent hiring freeze, from which only a limited number of positions are exempt, further hurts the Service’s ability to fill critical vacancies for medical professionals and support staff. 

It is shameful that, under the guise of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, this Administration is targeting the largest health care provider for Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Turning to the budget for the Indian Health Service for 2026, this Administration’s request reduces funding for Sanitation Facilities Construction by 87 percent, when, despite funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a backlog of over $1 billion in projects remain.

Troublingly, the budget provides no advance appropriations for 2027 to enable IHS to continue to serve patients in the event of a funding lapse. Tribal communities, including the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes in my state of Connecticut, fought for this assurance, to protect their care and not leave it to the whims of grandstanders in Congress. 

We must ensure IHS services are accessible and hospitals stay open even during a government shutdown. We must include advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service.

And we must do everything in our power to uphold our commitments and responsibilities to Tribal Nations. It is abhorrent that, under the guise of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, this Administration would undermine, underfund, and underserve Native Americans and Alaska Natives. We must do better. I know the sentiments in this committee, and we will do better.

Thank you, and I look forward to your testimony.

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