Senator Collins’ Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen America’s Nursing Workforce Advances Out of Committee

Bill would reauthorize programs supporting nursing education, clinical training, recruitment, and retention.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup, the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act advanced by a bipartisan vote of 21 to 1. This bill, introduced by U.S. Senators Susan Collins, Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), would reauthorize, update, and improve critical programs under Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act, a law passed in 1944 to support public health and health care professionals. The bill now moves to the Senate floor for consideration by the full body.

"The State of Maine continues to face a serious shortage of nurses, particularly in rural communities where hospitals struggle to recruit and retain staff. This shortage is driven by a severe shortage of nursing faculty," said Senator Collins during the markup. "This bipartisan legislation would help strengthen the nursing workforce by reauthorizing critical programs that support nursing education, expand access to clinical training, and help schools prepare more students for careers in nursing. These programs are essential to addressing the workforce shortage facing hospitals in rural areas in Maine and across our country."

Specifically, the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act would:

1. Reauthorize funding for the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs from Fiscal Year 2026 through Fiscal Year 2030;
2. 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;
3. Allow 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 in order to address nursing workforce shortages; and
4. 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.

The Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act is supported by more than 50 organizations, including the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN).

Click here to read the complete text of the legislation.

Senator Collins has also worked to address health care workforce shortages and expand access to care in rural and underserved communities. She introduced the bipartisan Train More Nurses Act with Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) to identify ways to increase nursing school faculty and create additional pathways for Licensed Practical Nurses to become Registered Nurses. The MOBILE Health Care Act, which she introduced with Senator Rosen and was signed into law in 2022, allows community health centers to use federal funds to establish new mobile health care units to increase access to health care services in rural and underserved communities.

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