This bill adds a new section to the Public Health Service Act to create a federal grant program to establish, expand, and sustain a public health nursing workforce. The Department of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) would make grants to State, local, and territorial public health departments. Grant funds may pay wages and benefits for licensed registered nurses, training, medical supplies (including personal protective equipment), and related administrative costs. Recipients may make subgrants to local health departments. The bill defines a "public health nurse" as a nurse who provides preventive care, nutrition, infectious disease and chronic disease education, and maternal, prenatal, and postpartum services intended to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. Grant recipients must maintain non‑Federal spending at least at the level they spent in the previous fiscal year. The Secretary must give priority to applicants that serve high-need areas (for example, places with high chronic disease, infant mortality, maternal morbidity, low‑income or medically underserved populations, health professional shortage areas, maternity target areas, or rural and traditionally underserved communities), that plan to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services, and that have collective bargaining agreements or explicit noninterference policies with worker organizing rights.
If the bill becomes law, public health departments could get federal money to hire and train registered nurses to work in community clinics, mobile health units, hospitals, and through home visits. Funds are aimed at serving people in high-need or underserved places and to support services such as preventive care, chronic disease management, and maternal and infant care. Local health departments could also receive subgrants. The program would prioritize projects that offer services in appropriate languages and cultural contexts and that respect labor organizing rights.
The bill authorizes $5,000,000,000 per year for each fiscal year 2026 through 2035 to carry out the program. Grant funds may be used for wages and benefits, training, medical supplies including PPE, administrative costs, and subgrants to local health departments. Recipients must maintain their non-Federal spending on these activities at or above the level from the prior fiscal year.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.