Final Friday, virtually 1,000 Indian Well being Service (IHS) staff have been laid off as a part of President Trump’s government order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Division of Authorities Effectivity’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” Levi Rickert reported for Native Information On-line over the weekend.
Nonetheless, shortly after, the layoffs affecting IHS staff have been rescinded, Levi Rickert wrote. Hours after staff had been knowledgeable of the layoffs, supervisors started notifying the focused staff that that they had been given a reprieve, ICT’s Jourdan Bennett-Begaye knowledgeable.
“The Indian Well being Service has all the time been handled because the redheaded stepchild at HHS,” mentioned the not too long ago elected Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in an announcement emailed to Native Information On-line. “My father typically complained that IHS was chronically understaffed and underfunded. President Trump desires me to rectify this unhappy historical past. Indians undergo the very best stage of power illness of any demographic. IHS might be a precedence over the subsequent 4 years. President Trump desires me to finish the power illness epidemic starting in Indian nation.”
“[T]he Nationwide Indian Well being Board, the Nationwide Council of City Indian Well being, and the Nationwide Indian Youngster Welfare Affiliation despatched a letter to the administration urging them to exempt staff important to fulfilling the USA’ belief and treaty obligations to tribal nations,” Rickert reported.
“We are able to verify the layoffs have been rescinded thanks a minimum of partially to advocacy by the numerous Tribal organizations.” a spokesperson for the Nationwide Indian Well being Board mentioned in an electronic mail to Native Information On-line.
The mass layoffs affected the CDC, FDA, and NIH, as our editor-in-chief reported on February 18.
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