Indian Health Service nominee up for business meeting

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Roselyn Tso appears before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for her nomination hearing to be director of the Indian Health Service on May 25, 2022. Photo: Navajo Nation Office of President and Vice President

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Indianz.Com

President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Indian Health Service is slowly but surely moving through the confirmation process in the U.S. Senate.

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is due to consider the nomination of Roselyn Tso at a business meeting on Wednesday. Assuming she is approved, she will be one step closer to being confirmed as director of the IHS, the federal agency charged with delivering health care to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

“Without a doubt, there is a trust responsibility to Native Americans and Alaska Natives — specifically to healthcare — that have been documented through statute, as well as the Supreme Court decisions,” Tso said during her nomination hearing on May 25.

Indianz.Com Video: Roselyn Tso – Confirmation hearing to be Director of the Indian Health Service – May 25, 2022

Tso is a citizen of the Navajo Nation. She has worked for the IHS since 1984, most recently serving as director of the region that serves her tribe in the states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

“Through her leadership, the Navajo Nation achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in the world,” President Jonathan Nez said in crediting Tso with helping address the disproportionate affects on the COVID-19 pandemic on the largest reservation in the United States.

Tso was nominated by Biden on March 9. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first permanent director of the IHS in more than two years.

The IHS has gone without a permanent leader for six of the last seven years, including for most of the Donald Trump administration. The agency is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The business meeting takes place at 2:30pm Eastern on Wednesday. It is expected to be webcast on indian.senate.gov.

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs

Business Meeting to consider Roselyn Tso to be Director of the Indian Health Service (July 13, 2022)