WASHINGTON, D.C. – The President’s fiscal year 2024 budget builds on the historic enactment of advance appropriations for the IHS that were provided in FY 2023.
Advance appropriations represent an important step towards securing stable and predictable funding to improve the overall health status of American Indians and Alaska Natives, and ensuring that the disproportionate impacts experienced by tribal communities during government shutdowns and continuing resolutions are never repeated.
The FY 2024 budget is reflective of tribal and urban Indian organization leader priorities as it includes significant funding increases beginning in FY 2024 towards the top tribal budget recommendations. In addition, the mandatory budget builds towards the tribal recommendation of full funding.
In FY 2025, the budget makes all funding for IHS mandatory, culminating in a total funding level of approximately $44 billion in FY 2033. In total, the mandatory formula would provide a net increase of $192 billion over the discretionary baseline. Under the proposed mandatory formula, IHS funding would grow automatically to address inflationary factors, key operational needs, and existing backlogs in both health care services and facilities infrastructure.
Over a five-year period, the budget provides an increase of more than $11 billion to expand direct health care services and close the Indian Health Care Improvement Fund Level of Need gap. It also includes an additional $6.5 billion to finalize modernization of the IHS electronic health record system. The budget would also fully fund the remaining projects on the 1993 Health Care Facilities Construction Priority List and start funding other construction needs in 2031.
These major steps demonstrate the Biden administration’s continued commitment to honoring the United States’ treaty responsibility to tribal nations, strengthening the nation-to-nation relationship, and improving the health of American Indians and Alaska Natives throughout Indian Country.
