Larsen questions JAC explanation for removing, restoring federal Indian Health Services funding in state budget

(Riverton, WY) – Wyoming Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, questioned an explanation offered this week as to why the legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee voted to remove $58 million in federal pass-through funding for Indian Health Services from the state budget earlier this month.

JAC Co-Chair and Wyoming Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, had just characterized his committee’s decision to reject the $58 million exception request as an “accounting issue,” explaining that the federal government has since revised the needed dollar figure down to $41 million.

“That $58 million was a guess, (and) it turns out the guess was a little overestimated,” Bear said during a legislative Tribal Relations Committee meeting this week in Riverton. “The actual number is $41 million, so that is the proper amount to add to that request – and I can tell you the JAC is likely to take action before we get into session to ensure that we accept that new estimate and that we go ahead and give that spending authority to the chief executive and to the department.”

‘Not the case’

Larsen pushed back on Bear’s comments later in the Tribal Relations Committee meeting, referring back to the recording of the Jan. 13 JAC meeting where the IHS funding decision was made. 

“There (are) some who would suggest that, ‘Well, we didn’t have the true numbers at the time when the budget was presented,’” Larsen said during the public comment portion of this week’s meeting. “But if you listen to the testimony – which I did – that is not the case. Not at all. 

“What we were told by the person who presented that amendment was that it was an effort to save taxpayer dollars. And even though these weren’t general fund taxes, they were federal taxes and we needed to save them.”

Larsen was summarizing comments made after Wyoming Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, made a motion to reject the $58 million exception request for IHS during the Jan. 13 JAC meeting.

When Wyoming Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, asked Pendergraft to “address why he’s proposing a reduction here,” Pendergraft explained that the exception request repesents “an ask for an increase, and as I’ve stated before, I believe that the first option, the first thing that needs to be done is to stop the acceleration.”

“We’re not cutting anything,” Wyoming Rep. Bill Allemand, R-Midwest, added. “We’re just not allowing increases to run away.”

Wyoming Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, disagreed with Allemand’s assertion, though.

“These are cuts,” Driskill said. “You’re saving federal money. … 

“They’re trying to take care of probably our most disadvantaged population we have in the entire state, (and) we’re doing a great job of telling them we don’t care about them.”

Bear commended Driskill, and the other JAC members who argued against Pendergraft’s motion that day, for their “impassioned argument about services” – but he also countered that “somebody needs to look out for the taxpayer.”

“We do represent the taxpayer, and anytime you increase spending in government of any type, you are putting a burden on the taxpayer,” Bear said during the Jan. 13 meeting. 

“These benefits will not be expanded if we do not fund it, (so) those people voting for these … restrictions on increases in funding are also looking out for the taxpayer.”

Treaty obligations

The discussion that was recorded during that Jan. 13 JAC meeting demonstrates that the lawmakers who rejected the exception request from IHS didn’t understand the implications of their decision, Larsen said this week, explaining that the federal government has a treaty obligation to cover health care costs for most federally recognized tribes in the United States, including the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes.

Wyoming serves as a pass-through entity to deliver that federal money to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes, Larsen said – that’s why “it’s really important that we understand (our role) as legislators and how that fits into the whole scheme of things, between the obligation of the federal government to these two sovereign nations.”

“The state, we’re just passing (the funding) through,” he said. “So that (JAC decision) was shortsighted at best, for not understanding what this money done and how it came across.”

The JAC decision spurred local tribal members and other residents to protest outside of the Tribal Relations Committee meeting this week.

In an effort to avoid similar misunderstandings in the future, Northern Arapaho Business Council Co-Chair Kimberly Whiteman Harjo suggested establishing an Office of Indian Affairs in Cheyenne to “open that line of communication between (the) tribes and the state.”

“There’s a lot of other tribes in this nation that have a great line of communication with their senators, their governor, their representatives – but we’re not one of them,” she said. “I think that we need to have more collaboration and a better line of communication.”

‘Never in jeopardy’

During this week’s Tribal Relations Committee meeting, Bear clarified that the funding for IHS was “never in jeopardy,” because even without legislative approval, the federal agency can request a “B-11” adjustment from the governor as needed.

“That’s how we’ve made it through these different funding shortfalls in the past,” Bear said. “And the federal government, every single time, has met those requests.”

Several attendees at this week’s meeting thanked Bear for that explanation, and for committing to restore the IHS funding in the state budget before the legislative session convenes next month.

“I am so grateful – because without the funding, our people would die,” Wind River Family and Community Health Care CEO Rick Brannan said during the meeting.

Lee Spoonhunter, who represents the Rocky Mountain Region on the National Indian Health Board, agreed with Brannan that “this is a matter of life and death.”

“If we don’t have this money that you all are going to pass back into the budget, people will die,” he said. “That’s just the honest reality of the inadequate health care that we face. 

“(So) today is a good day. … I am, like Rick here, happy and a little emotional that the health care money was put back into the budget, or is going to be put back into the budget. It’s very critical.”

Wyoming Sen. Cale Case, who co-chairs the Tribal Relations Committee, also called it “a good day.”

“What a wonderful thing to learn that we’re going to get the money,” he said, thanking the JAC for their work on the topic.

Tribal Relations Committee Co-Chair Wyoming Rep. Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie, specifically thanked Bear and JAC Co-Chair Wyoming Rep. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, who also sits on the Tribal Relations Committee, for “their efforts to relook at this and get some more funding for our healthcare services.”

“It sounds like it’s … being reconsidered and re-looked at,” Posey said.