119th Congress

Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-01), the top Democrats on the subcommittees that oversee funding for the Indian Health Service (IHS), demanded urgent action from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop dangerous cuts to the IHS workforce, which is already facing huge challenges and staffing vacancies.

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro released the following statement after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia paused the Trump Administration’s plans to put more than 2,000 critical U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers on paid leave:

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, joined Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Related Agencies Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, in calling out the Trump Administration for the chaos and confusion they have unleashed by pausing communications and critical work, groundbreaking research, and funding for programs Americans rely on at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The legislators also demanded answers from the Trump Administration on the funding freeze that has impacted Medicaid, Head Start and other vital services in their states.