On May 6, the Indian Health Service (IHS) released a Dear Tribal Leader Letter on an update to the IHS Tribal Consultation Policy and process. Since August 24, 2021, the IHS Consultation Workgroup has convened several sessions reviewing the Tribal Consultation feedback sent to the Department before June 15, 2021. In this workgroup individuals have identified areas for improvement and developed a recommendation plan IHS leadership to consider. At the end of this month, the Consultation Workgroup will have finalized all recommendations for IHS leadership to consider. After that finalization, IHS will host a nationwide Tribal Consultation to collect feedback on the Workgroups recommendations. While a specific date has not been finalized for the collection of this feedback, the department did specify to receive feedback by August 2022.
For additional comments and questions on the continued update of the IHS Tribal Consultation Policy and process please contact Ms. Anna Johnson, Program Analyst, Office of Tribal Self-Governance, IHS, by telephone at (301) 443-2403, or by e-mail at [email protected].