RFK Jr. rescinds Indian Health Service layoffs

By Jourdan Bennett-Begaye | ICT

This story has been updated Tuesday, Feb. 18 with a statement from the health secretary and information from the federal agency.

Newly installed Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. verbally rescinded the layoffs of 950 Indian Health Service employees Friday evening, just hours after the workers were told by phone that they were losing their jobs, sources familiar with the notification told ICT.

The layoff orders for IHS were rescinded about 6 p.m. Eastern on Friday, Feb. 14, and the official email notifications of the layoffs were never sent to the probationary employees who expected to receive them, sources said.

IHS was exempt from the cuts, an official from the Department of Health and Human Services told ICT Tuesday morning. A follow-up question was not answered. 

“The Indian Health Service has always been treated as the redheaded stepchild at HHS,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a written statement to ICT. “My father often complained that IHS was chronically understaffed and underfunded. President Trump wants me to rectify this sad history. Indians suffer the highest level of chronic disease of any demographic. IHS will be a priority over the next four years. President Trump wants me to end the chronic disease epidemic beginning in Indian country.”

Acting IHS Director Ben Smith said on an emotional phone call Friday afternoon that the 950 employees would receive the layoff notices from the Office of Personnel Management “immediately,” according to sources who heard the call.

The call left a number of employees in tears, and Smith emphasized that the layoffs were “troubling news” for all employees.

After news arrived a few hours later that the layoffs had been rescinded, supervisors began notifying the targeted employees that they had been given a reprieve.

The about-face by HHS on the layoffs came after several letters were sent to the Trump administration asking for exemptions for health workers and warning of “unintended life and death consequences” in Indian Country if hundreds of health care workers were abruptly laid off.

“There are 214 Tribal Nations that receive some or all of their care directly from IHS, and losing probationary providers and staff would mean a loss of health and ultimately mortality,” according to a letter sent midday Friday to the OPM and agency leaders by a coalition of Native organizations.

“Indian Country cannot afford emergency rooms and clinics being forced to shut down or significantly downsize, eliminating critical access to care,” the letter stated.

A.C. Locklear, Lumbee, who is interim chief executive officer of the National Indian Health Board, a national tribal health organization based in the nation’s capital, said his organization, tribes and other organizations made significant efforts to put the layoffs “on hold.”

“We hope a permanent exemption for all IHS staff will be provided, as such a loss would represent 6 percent of the IHS workforce and would be catastrophic for the agency and direct care services," he told ICT. "IHS has a 30 percent provider vacancy rate, before any Reduction in Force actions are implemented.” 

The OPM initially indicated that 2,200 probationary employees in IHS would be laid off, including nearly 100 doctors, 350 nurses, nursing assistants, pharmacists and others. IHS formally asked for an exemption for all health care workers.

In response, Trump administration officials notified health officials that doctors, nurses and other critical care workers would be exempt, but that 950 employees would still be laid off, sources said.

Notification that all IHS layoffs had been halted came an hour or two later, on Kennedy’s second day as health secretary. He was sworn in on Thursday, Feb. 13, as alerts about the impending layoffs affecting tribal programs were being distributed.

Officials with Health and Human Services did not respond to requests from ICT for comment. HHS oversees the Indian Health Service and is apparently part of a Trump administration shut-down on outgoing communications.

Other layoffs Friday included up to 2,600 at the Department of the Interior, and other layoffs at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education, the Department of Justice and other agencies that provide services to tribal nations and communities.

The layoffs were part of Trump’s executive order, “Implementing the President's ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” to lay off hundreds of thousands of probationary employees across the federal government.

The layoff notices went to federal workers who had been hired within the last year or two and were not yet covered under the civil service regulations that protect other federal workers.

ICT's Kevin Abourezk contributed to this report. 

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