The partial government shutdown that began December 22, 2018 over President Trump’s demand for a taxpayer-funded U.S.-Mexico border wall has entered its fourth week, impacting funding for several departments and agencies including the Indian Health Service (IHS), an operating division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responsible for providing direct medical and public health services to members of federally-recognized Native American Tribes and Alaska Native people.
While other departments under HHS remain unaffected, IHS receives its funding through the U.S. Department of the Interior, one of several federal impacted agencies, and is thus feeling the full weight of the shutdown. According to an IHS spokesperson, the only services that have continued are those that meet “immediate needs of the patients, medical staff, and medical facilities”, which includes IHS-run clinics that provide direct healthcare services to tribes around the country. These clinics have been deemed “excepted” and will remain open during the shutdown, though clinics and clinic workers will not be paid until after the shutdown ends.
Though the House has voted mostly along partisan lines to approve a continuing resolution funding the government, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has so far refused to take up the bill, which would almost certainly face presidential veto. Facing strong continuing resistance from Democrats and from a small number some Republicans in Congress, the President has threatened to declare a national emergency and use expanded presidential powers to erect a border wall.