Local elected officials are criticizing the planned closure of the Indian Health Service’s Tucson Area Office as part of an agency-wide restructuring.
Announced last year, the IHS Realignment plan is the first overhaul of the agency’s organizational structure in two decades and aims to improve its accountability, efficiency and service provision, according to the agency’s website. It calls for merging its Tucson Area Office with its Phoenix Area Office, with no changes to its 10 other area offices.
“The manner in which IHS alignment is occurring undermines tribal sovereignty and violates federal trust responsibilities we have to native nations,” said U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva at a Monday press conference protesting the planned closure.
The Tucson Area Office gives technical assistance to healthcare facilities on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation and provides some direct services — education, prevention and referrals — at the Tucson Indian Center in downtown Tucson. Compared to other IHS regional offices, it covers a relatively small area.
Since a 2000 executive order, federal agencies must consult with tribal nations before making decisions affecting Native Americans. The IHS has held dozens of local consultation sessions regarding realignment plans. But leaders who gathered at the Pima County Historic Courthouse for Monday’s event said those sessions were lacking.
“There has been some discussion, but there has been no true consultation on what this actually means and the plan moving forward,” said Verlon Jose, the chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Jose said IHS has only held regional consultation sessions rather than engaging directly with his nation or the Pascua Yaqui Nation. When realignment plans were announced in June 2025, Jose said, closing the Tucson Area Office wasn’t discussed. The proposal was added in December, he said, blindsiding tribal nations.
“IHS has not explained why only Tucson Area Office was selected for the closure,” Jose said.
On Monday, Grijalva, Sen. Mark Kelly and Sen. Ruben Gallego sent a letter to IHS leadership asking the agency to halt the Tucson Area Office closure until it explains the move’s effects and undertakes “meaningful” consultation.
“It remains unclear how the Tucson Area Office, the only office that would be consolidated through this initiative, was selected for consolidation and whether the repercussions of this decision have been fully considered,” they wrote.
The letter asks agency leadership to explain the move and detail its consultation process by June 15, as well as sharing any plans to prevent the consolidation from affecting assistance to local healthcare facilities.
According to Grijalva, it is still unclear how the reorganization will affect employees of the Tucson Area Office.
According to a January slideshow posted to the IHS website, realignment plans would be published in the Federal Register — the federal government’s daily journal of new policies — on May 22, with a transition to the agency’s new structure happening in May and June. On Monday afternoon, a search of the Federal Register did not yield an official notice of realignment plans.
Jose acknowledged the agency is trying to operate more efficiently.
“But, you know, how could you put the price on a person’s health? How could you put the price on the care of a person’s health?” he said.
Formed in 1955, the Indian Health Service provides care to over 2 million Native Americans. According to its website, facilities in the Tucson Area Office’s region serve almost 28,000 members of the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui nations. The agency has not always had easy relations with tribal nations. A 2018 report by the federal Commission on Civil Rights found that the “efforts of the federal government have been insufficient to meet the promises of providing for the health and wellbeing of tribal citizens” and called Native American healthcare “chronically underfunded.”
