Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to Host an Oversight Hearing on the Impact of Health & Human Services Cuts to Native Communities

On Wednesday, May 14, at 3:30 p.m. ET, U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Chair of the Committee and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaiʻi), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and , will convene an oversight hearing titled “Delivering Essential Public Health and Social Services to Native Americans – Examining Federal Programs Serving Native Americans Across the Operating Divisions at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).” The hearing will take place in Room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

 This week, Senators Schatz and Murkowski wrote to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to sound the alarm over his dismantling of HHS, as well as urgent staffing shortages at the Indian Health Service. Schatz has previously warned about the devastating potential impact that Republican plans to cut Medicaid would have on Native communities specifically.

Event Details: 

WHAT:

Murkowski and Schatz to lead Senate Committee on Indian Affairs oversight hearing on HHS programs serving American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiians

WITNESSES:

• THE HONORABLE JANET ALKIRE, Chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Fort Yates, North Dakota (in-person)
• THE HONORABLE LONI GRENINGER, Vice Chair, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Council, Sequim, Washington (in-person)
• MS. MELISSA CHARLIE, Executive Director, Fairbanks Native Association, Fairbanks, Alaska (in-person)
• MS. LUCY SIMPSON, Executive Director, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Lame Deer, Montana (in-person)
• MS. SHERI-ANN DANIELS, Chief Executive Officer, Papa Ola Lōkahi, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi (in-person)

WHEN:

Wednesday, May 14, 3:30 p.m. ET

WHERE:

Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 628

Live video of the event will be available here.

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