U.S (NATIVE ORGANIZERS ALLIANCE ACTION FUND): The United States must honor its obligations to Native peoples.

 

 

 

 

 

 Friend, 

 

In a huge announcement this week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that in less than one month the Treasury will have exhausted its “extraordinary measures,” which have allowed the U.S. to continue paying its bills in the absence of Congressional action to suspend or raise the debt limit.

Funding for Native peoples -- from healthcare to housing to nutrition to education -- is already severely underfunded.

According to the National Indian Health Board :^[1]

“Tribal Nations face an ongoing health crisis that is a direct result of the United States’ chronic underfunding of Indian health care, which contributes to vast health disparities between Native Americans and other U.S. population groups.”

Now, Speaker Kevin McCarthy and extremists in the House have passed a bill that would slash funding for Indian Health Services, SNAP food benefits, and much more.

They’re holding our country’s economy hostage, demanding severe cuts to critical programs in exchange for raising the debt ceiling and allowing the U.S. to continue to pay its bills.

On Thursday, the Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing exposing the true impact of McCarthy’s reckless legislation. And, next week, President Biden will host members of Congress at the White House, including Speaker McCarthy, to discuss the urgent need to raise the debt limit now.

We cannot allow Kevin McCarthy and MAGA Republicans to hold our economy hostage over their right-wing demands. They’re putting political ideology ahead of the health and well-being of the country. Write to President Biden and the Senate to demand the federal government not raise the debt limit on the backs of Indigenous people.

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Programs for Native peoples are always the last to be funded and the first to be cut.

According to an analysis by the National Congress of American Indians, funding for Indian Health Services (IHS) would have to double just to match the level of healthcare provided to federal prisoners, and we’d need an even larger investment to match the benefits guaranteed to Medicaid recipients.^[2] And yet, McCarthy’s plan would cut IHS funding by $327 million.^[3]

A decade ago, a $220 million reduction in Indian Health Service funding resulted in more than 800,000 fewer outpatient visits and 3,000 fewer inpatient admissions.^[4]

Congress has previously agreed that, “Federal health services to maintain and improve the health of the Indians are consonant with and required by the Federal Government’s historical and unique legal relationship with, and resulting responsibility to, the American Indian people.”^[5]

Indian Health Services needs more, not less funding. Write to President Biden and the U.S. Senate and demand the federal government not raise the debt limit on the backs of Indigenous people now.

Together, we’re fighting for our rights and our future.

Thank you, 

 

Tremayne Nez
Policy Director

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^{[1] House of Representatives Passes the “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023” – Includes Potentially Disastrous Reductions for Indian Health
[2] Native Americans: A Crisis in Health Equity
[3] Back to the future? Sharp cuts proposed for Indian Health Service
[4] Proposed Legislation to Lift US Debt Limit Threatens Native Health Care
[5] 25 U.S. Code § 1601 - Congressional findings}