Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, Navajo Nation First Lady Phefelia Nez, Dr.
Jill Biden, and health industry leaders at the House of Hope in Tuba City, Arizona on May, 22, 2019. Photo courtesy Navajo Nation Office of President and Vice President

The Navajo Nation 

Office of the President and Vice President

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2022

Federal spending bill provides $8 million for the Tuba City long-term care and skilled nursing and cancer treatment center

WINDOW ROCK, Arizona — Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer commend the recent approval by Congress and U.S. President Joe Biden of $8 million to help develop long-term care and skilled nursing services and support for the existing cancer treatment center at the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation on the Navajo Nation. The funding was included in the $1.5 trillion spending bill, signed into law on Friday, to fund the federal government through the remainder of FY2022. 

“We are very pleased with the collaboration and combined support of our congressional delegation, Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation, Navajo Nation Washington Office, and many others to secure this much-needed funding to help develop long-term care services for our Navajo elders and to support the first-ever cancer treatment that was established on tribal lands within the Navajo Nation. This historic funding allocation is the very first federal investment in tribal based cancer care. We had the honor of joining First Lady Dr. Jill Biden for a visit to the cancer treatment center and now we are pleased to support the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to reignite the Cancer Moonshot mission to end cancer. The Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation board, CEO, and staff members continue to do great work to help our communities” said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez.

The expansion of the current cancer treatment center means that, in addition to hematology treatment, the specialty care clinic will now move a step closer to providing radiation oncology treatment so that cancer patients can receive the services closer to home rather than having to travel off of the Navajo Nation.

In 2019, President Nez and First Lady Phefelia Nez welcomed U.S. First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, and the Cancer Support Community to Tuba City, Ariz. to visit the first cancer treatment center in all of Indian Country, which developed through partnerships with the Barbara Bradley Baekgaard Family Foundation, Biden Cancer Initiative, Eisai, Merck, and Pfizer.

“We commend the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation board and CEO Lynette Bonar for forging new partnerships with universities, health care companies, and health industry professionals to garner support for the cancer treatment center to provide chemotherapy, support groups, and other much needed services for Navajo people who suffer from various types of cancer. Many hands were laid to this great work and we fully support this successful effort to fight cancer and help save more lives,” stated Vice President Lizer. 

The Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation, located nearly 80 miles northeast of Flagstaff, Ariz., provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient emergency services, dental and ophthalmology services, orthopedics, OB-GYN, oral surgery, eye surgery, and urological procedures. The Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President continues to support the ongoing efforts of the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation to fully establish long-term skilled nursing services and to construct a new hospital facility to replace the current hospital constructed in 1975.