President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would nominate Roselyn Tso to serve as director of the Indian Health Service, raising hopes of a fresh start for an agency that has drawn intense criticism over the years for failing to provide adequate care to tribal communities.
Tso, a member of the Navajo Nation, is currently the director of the Navajo Area of IHS, overseeing the delivery of health services to more than 240,000 Native Americans in the Southwest.
If confirmed, she would replace Elizabeth A. Fowler, a member of the Comanche Nation descended from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who has led the agency on an interim basis since January 2021. Rear Adm. Michael Weahkee led the agency during the Trump administration, but served in an acting capacity until April 2020.
Biden’s choice of Tso comes more than a year into his presidency. He made a campaign promise to address the long-standing issues plaguing the Indian Health Service, which has suffered from a lack of consistent permanent leadership.
Tso has been with the agency since 1984, with stints at the Portland Area office, in Oregon, and the agency’s headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.
“The Indian Health Service director plays a critical role in raising the health status of Native peoples and upholding the federal government’s trust responsibility to Native communities,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. “I am committed to seeking Indian Country’s input on Ms. Tso’s nomination as the committee carefully considers her qualifications.”
The Indian Health Service consists of 26 hospitals, 56 health centers and 32 health stations, and provides care to 2.6 million members of the nation’s tribal communities — roughly half. The hospitals, scattered across a dozen administrative regions, range in size from four beds to 133.
The agency has long faced shortages of funding and supplies, but the pandemic brought those disparities to the fore, with disproportionally high rates of infection and death among Native Americans.
Critics say the agency, with an annual budget of more than $6 billion, has been chronically neglected by Congress and successive administrations. Staffing vacancies abound in its hospitals, and the Native American communities it serves have some of the worst health outcomes in the country.
The National Congress of American Indians, in a statement, applauded the Biden administration for taking steps to fill a position that is crucial to making sure that IHS is prepared to meet the needs of Indian Country.
