Merkley Applauds Committee Passage of His Bipartisan Bill to Boost America’s Nursing Workforce

Washington, D.C. - Oregon's U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley today announced his bipartisan Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act cleared a key hurdle by passing out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). Merkley's bill reauthorizes, updates, and improves critical Nursing Workforce Development Programs under Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act, a law passed in 1944 to support public health and health care professionals.

"As the proud husband of a nurse, I know that nurses make the world so much better, one bedside at a time," said Merkley, Co-Chair of the Senate Nursing Caucus. "Our bipartisan bill ensures America's nurses have the resources and support necessary to meet care needs now and in the future, including in rural and medically underserved communities that too often face unique challenges in accessing quality and timely care. As this bill takes one step closer to becoming law, we must keep fighting to strengthen all aspects of the American nursing workforce and the programs that are critical to these health care heroes, including education, practice, recruitment, and retention."

Merkley led the introduction of the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act with U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). Their bipartisan bill would:

• Reauthorize funding for the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs from FY2027 through FY2031;
• Make technical changes to the Advanced Nursing Education Program and make clear that grants for traineeships can cover the costs for clinical education and preceptors;
• Allow existing funding for Nurse Education, Practice, Quality, and Retention grants to be used to cover the cost of audiovisual or other equipment, simulation and augmented reality resources, telehealth technologies, and virtual and physical laboratories, as well as to be used to increase the number of faculty and students at schools of nursing to address nursing workforce shortages; and
• Clarify that Nurse Education, Practice, Quality, and Retention grants can be used to provide care for survivors of sexual assault and to partner with a health care facility that provides educational opportunities for the purpose of establishing or expanding clinical education.

U.S. Representatives Dave Joyce (R-OH-14), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR-01), Lauren Underwood (D-IL-14), and Jen Kiggans (R-VA-02) lead the House version of the bill.

As amended by the Senate HELP Committee during the markup, the bill also includes language based on Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) and Merkley's National Nursing Workforce Center Act, which would support state-based nursing workforce centers, as well as language based on Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)'s Nurse Faculty Shortage Reduction Act, which would address the pay gap between clinical and faculty nursing positions.

To learn more about the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act as originally introduced in the Senate, click here.

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