June 26, 2024

Dear USET/USET SPF Family,

On June 21, 2024, USET SPF joined numerous Tribal organizations in sending a letter to Congressional appropriations leadership urging them to take up the President's FY 2025 proposal to reclassify Contract Support Costs (CSC) and Section 105(l) lease payments as mandatory appropriations. 

The letter describes how, for a decade now, House and Senate appropriators have known and published statements on the rapid growth of CSC and 105(l) lease payments and the need to reclassify these items as non-discretionary spending. Despite the problem being highlighted by appropriators, the Interior appropriations bill - the piece of legislation that funds the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Indian Health Service (IHS), among others - is still struggling to address chronically underfunded programs while keeping up with CSC and 105(l) growth. Additionally, both the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have requested that these items be appropriated as mandatory, yet Congress has still not acted on this proposal. 

The joint letter goes on to highlight how the recent Supreme Court decision ruling that the IHS must pay CSC on revenue collected from third-party payers will unquestionably have major implications for the IHS budget. With this and other factors impacting the overall federal budget in this appropriations cycle, the letter states that it is imperative to reclassify CSC and 105(l) payments as mandatory. 

USET SPF, along with the others who joined this letter, firmly believe that reclassifying these items is essential to the fulfillment of the federal government's trust and treaty obligations. We, as we have in the past, will continue to advocate for mandatory funding not only for CSC and 105(l) lease payments, but for the entirety of the IHS budget. Full and mandatory funding for the IHS is a requirement for fulfillment of the U.S.'s perpetual trust and treaty obligations, and we urge Congress to take up this proposal and honor its promises to Tribal Nations. 

For more information, please contact Ashton Martin, USET SPF Health Policy Analyst, at amartin@usetinc.or

Established in 2014, the USET Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET SPF) is a non-profit, inter-Tribal organization advocating on behalf of thirty-three (33) federally recognized Tribal Nations from the Northeastern Woodlands to the Everglades and across the Gulf of Mexico. USET SPF is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and advancing the inherent sovereign rights and authorities of Tribal Nations and in assisting its membership in dealing effectively with public policy issues.