Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee

Dear Tribal Leader:

I take great pleasure in announcing the development of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee (STAC) as an important next step towards improving services, outreach, and consultation efforts with you, our tribal partners. In alignment with the President’s and my priorities, we have made significant progress over the last year and a half towards reshaping the way we work with Tribes; however, we still have far to go. I write to solicit your participation in identifying leaders to serve on this Committee.

The establishment of a tribal advisory committee at the Secretarial level will create a coordinated, department-wide strategy to incorporate tribal guidance on HHS priorities, policies and budget, improve the Government-to-Government relationship, and mechanisms for continuous improvement with our partnership with Indian Tribes.

I seek nominations for one primary representative from each of the twelve areas of the Indian Health Service, as well as five at-large national representatives. All representatives must either be elected or appointed Tribal officials, acting in their official capacity as the elected officials of their Tribe, or be designated by an elected Tribal official with authority to act on behalf of the Tribal official.  HHS will support the travel of the primary representative to attend in-person meetings of the STAC.  I encourage you to submit your nomination letter for these seventeen committee members, no later than Friday, October 29, 2010 to:

Paul Dioguardi, Director

Office of Intergovernmental Affairs

US Department of Health and Human Services

200 Independence Ave SW Room 630-F

Washington, DC 20201

Fax: (202)-205-2727

Email: HHSIGA@hhs.gov

We plan to notify members in November and convene our first meeting of the Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee in December 2010.

Thank you for your continued hard work and support.  If you have further questions or concerns please feel free to contact Stacey Ecoffey, Principal Advisor for Tribal Affairs via email at Stacey.Ecoffey@hhs.gov or via phone at (202)-690-6060.

We are committed to continually working to improve our relationship with Indian Country and build healthier communities.

Sincerely,

/S/

Kathleen Sebelius