Klobuchar, Smith call for answers about potential Indian Health Service office lease termination
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In a letter to General Services Administration acting administrator Stephen Ehikian and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar stressed the importance of the Bemidji Area Office of the Indian Health Service in providing health care to American Indians in Minnesota and throughout the upper Midwest.
“Thousands of members of federally recognized Tribal Nations receive health care within the Bemidji Area Office’s purview. This includes emergency care, substance use disorder treatment, mental health care, primary, specialty, and dental care and much more,” wrote the senators.
In late February, the website for the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, targeted the IHS’s lease for termination along with hundreds of other government offices.
The letter from Smith and Klobuchar asserts the federal government has a “trust and treaty obligation” to provide health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives and that a shift in how those services are administered could disrupt care for thousands of people who receive health care through the Indian Health Service.
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“Without an operational Area Office, recipients of this care will face immediate disruptions in care and health consequences. It is unconscionable to risk the healthcare of children and families in this way,” the letter stated.
The Bemidji Area office administers healthcare services for 34 tribal nations and four urban Indian health programs in five states.
DOGE’s website says the federal government could save more than $178,000 by terminating the Bemidji IHS lease.
The Red Lake Nation in northwestern Minnesota is one of the larger tribal nations in the state.
Tribal health director Oren Beaulieu has led Red Lake’s health care programs for more than three decades.
Beaulieu says that Red Lake would still be able to provide direct health care services to Red Lake band members if the Bemidji Area IHS were to shutter, but he says the IHS area office is most necessary for smaller tribal nations.
“Smaller tribes in our area are not always able to have a full-time doctor or dentist or to provide direction or services where they are available where they are at. We are able to contact the area office to take care of the issue. It’s easier to go there than to go to Washington every time,” Beaulieu said.
Historically, Congress has provided federal dollars for health care to tribal nations.
The Snyder Act of 1921 was the first major legislation which created a federal budget for services to American Indians and Alaska Natives and provided a framework for the current Indian Health Service. The Indian Health Care Improvement Act was permanently reauthorized by Congress in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Beaulieu says IHS’s twelve area offices are essential in providing those services to tribal nations around the country. Beaulieu says Red Lake, like all tribal nations, has unique needs.
Part of the federal government’s obligations to tribal nations include providing for water and sanitation services through the IHS.
In 1959, Congress passed the Indian Sanitation Facilities Act, which authorizes the IHS to provide and maintain sanitation facilities to American Indian homes and communities. The legislation included provisions for safe drinking water and adequate sewerage.
Beaulieu said Red Lake has recently asked the federal government to grant Red Lake federal funding for its water and sewage systems. Beaulieu says that those services are critical for Red Lake Nation in its effort to keep Lower and Upper Red Lake clean.
“We also want to make sure our lake is safe and not affected by the number of individual wells. The way sewer systems are ... if they break down, then where does the sewage go? It goes into the water; they go into our lake,” Beaulieu said.
The Bemidji Area IHS provides engineers who build and maintain water and sewage systems for individual homes across the reservation.
Lexi Byler, state communications director for Smith, said her office has not received “official communication from GSA or the administration regarding the potential termination of the office’s lease.”