By Dan Hounsell

Deferred maintenance has taken a heavy toll on the nation’s facilities, regardless of their age, location or type. While K-12 school districts typically get attention for their efforts to repair facilities after years of underfunded maintenance, one segment of the facilities market — federal buildings in Native American communities, including healthcare facilities — also have been hit hard by deferred maintenance, and they are making the case for increased funding.

Leaders from American Indian tribes recently pressed federal agencies to make good on billions of dollars in deferred maintenance in these facilities at a House hearing, according to Federal Computer Week. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education and the Indian Health Service (IHS) operate or fund more than 1,800 federal facilities, ranging from fire stations to hospitals and schools. 

The FY 2022 budget request for IHS includes a $583 million funding increase for IHS facilities programs and an overall 36 percent increase in discretionary budget authority over FY 2021. But the total need for its Health Care Facilities Construction Program is about $14.5 billion as of 2016. The department's early drafts to update that estimate show it might now be as high as $22 billion.

The buildings show the effects of underfunding. The average age of IHS facilities is more than 37 years, as compared to an average of nine or 10 in the private sector.