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Tribal Budget Consultation

The annual budget request of the Indian Health Service is the result of the budget formulation and consultation process that involves IHS and tribal Indian health program representatives and providers from the local to the national level. This process is one the IHS is strongly committed to and believes it helps to ensure that the IHS budget is relevant to the health needs and priorities of American Indian and Alaska Native people.

The tribal priorities identified in the consultation process are also instrumental in informing senior officials of other HHS agencies of the health needs of the American Indian and Alaska Native population, so that they have the opportunity to include those priorities in their individual budget requests to HHS.

IHS policy states that consultation occurs when there is a critical event that may impact Tribes, new or revised policies or programs are proposed, or the IHS budget request and annual performance plan are being developed. In support of this policy and the Director's priorities to strengthen the IHS partnership with Tribes; the IHS is committed to making our work accountable, fair, and transparent. For more information on IHS budget formulation please see: IHS Circular No. 2006-01, Sec. 12

The Budget Formulation Workgroup is selected annually to complete and carry out the work of the larger budget team. The workgroup prepares the final set of tribal budget recommendations with an accompanying testimony on the results of the national budget work session and presents to the IHS Director as well as to the HHS senior officials at the annual HHS Tribal Consultation meeting. The workgroup also conducts an evaluation meeting of the recently completed budget process to improve the process and to develop the schedule for the next budget cycle.