White House Announces Deal to End Shutdown

to End Shutdown 

Government to Reopen Until February 15

January 25, 2019

This afternoon, President Trump announced an agreement between himself and Congressional leaders to end the partial government shutdown, currently in its 35th day.

While this agreement will not supply funding for a border wall, the central issue of disagreement leading to the shutdown, the President said that Congress would study the issue.

Under the terms of the agreement, Congress will fund the closed agencies until February 15, 2019, at which point another deal will have to be reached. The 800,000 affected federal employees will return to work for that time period and also receive back pay for the past 35 days. This includes the employees of the Indian Health Service (IHS).

On a January 24 call with Tribal leaders, IHS leadership informed Tribes that the agency would work to resume contract and compact payments to Tribes as quickly as possible once the shutdown ended. The resumed payments will bring relief to Tribes, many of which had to curtail health services or make cuts in other areas to ensure their health programs were not disrupted due to the shutdown.

Congress is expected to enact this agreement in the very near future, possibly as soon as this evening. The National Indian Health Board will continue its advocacy for a long term budget solution for IHS, such as Advance Appropriations, so that Indian Country is not put in this situation again.

If you have any questions, please contact Caitrin Shuy, NIHB Director of Congressional Relations, at cshuy@nihb.org.