Appropriations Committee approves revised increase in federal pass-through funds for Indian Health Service

(Cheyenne, WY) – The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee voted last week to reauthorize an increase in federal pass-through funding for Indian Health Services in the proposed state budget bill.

The JAC voted to restore the exception request at $41.3 million last week, citing a revised estimate from the Department of Health, which had originally requested an extra $58 million for IHS.

“They have corrected their estimate of the inflation rate from 10 percent down to 3 percent,” Wyoming Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, said during the Feb. 5 JAC meeting. “I believe that that’s appropriate, and we need to make these federal funds available to the department (to) appropriately fund the Indian Health Services all-inclusive rate.”

Wyoming Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, supported Pendergraft’s motion to restore the funding increase, which Wyoming Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, said there was a “clear need” for.

“We had funded the base budget of $94 million for this particular issue,” Bear explained. “This increase was at 60 percent, and now it’s looking at about a 40 percent increase since the 2024 budget. And so that’s what we’re voting on, to add this $41 million.”

In the past, some agencies have used the B-11 process to make these kinds of budget adjustments, Pendergraft added, but that method is “a little bit less transparent than what we’re trying to do here.”

“Here, we’re predicting – we’re making a better prediction of where we’re going to be so that the money is discussed during committee and forecast and laid out there and ready, rather than having that done through a process that is not as transparent,” he said. “So I think that’s part of what we’re trying to accomplish.”

The Wyoming Legislature will consider the state budget bill during the legislative session that began this week.