Senators concerned that health care providers for Indian Health Services could be fired

Sens. Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich urged President Donald Trump not to lay off Indian Health Service staff, including health care providers, in a letter Friday.

The New Mexico Democrats along with eight of their Senate colleagues are concerned that more than 850 Indian Health Service employees could be fired as a result of Trump’s Tuesday executive order, which directed heads of federal agencies to lay off probationary employees.

“Reporting indicates that more than 850 IHS employees, including 90 physicians, 350 nurses, at least 25 nurse practitioners, nearly 20 dentists, 43 dental assistants, more than 85 pharmacists, 45 lab technicians and more than 15 service area chief executives or their deputies are at risk of being laid off immediately,” the letter from the senators reads. “This is particularly concerning because IHS has long struggled with chronic health care workforce shortages.”

The number of layoffs in the letter comes from reporting by nonprofit news outlet ICT.

IHS had nearly 2,000 vacancies in 2024, according to the letter, and an overall health care provider vacancy rate of 25% across service areas.

“The federal government is already failing to meet its trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations, and further reductions in IHS’ workforce will severely impact the health and wellbeing of Tribal communities across the country,” the letter says. “Therefore, we strongly urge you to stop these firings and retain IHS probationary staff.”

Probationary staff are sometimes defined as federal employees in their first year of work and sometimes employees in their first two years on the job.

The National Council of Urban Indian Health, a representative for 41 Urban Indian Organizations that contract with the Indian Health Service, urged its members Friday to contact their congressional representatives about potential mass layoffs at the Indian Health Service.

Meanwhile, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said in a social media post that the Navajo Nation is working closely with the Trump administration to exempt many critical personnel. Many critical IHS employees, along with Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education staff, have been exempted from the order, according to Nygren.

“Although not all positions have received an exemption, we continue to work closely with federal officials to emphasize the vital role these positions play,” Nygren said in a statement. “Our goal is to restore any impacted positions to ensure uninterrupted service to our people while advancing the shared priorities of the Navajo Nation and the U.S. government.”

IHS directed questions about the potential layoffs to the Department of Health and Human Services, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.