Boosts public health nursing across the country, especially in underserved areas.
This bill would create a new federal grant program to help state, local, and territorial public health departments hire and train more public health nurses. It aims to improve access to health services, especially for communities that currently lack enough healthcare professionals or have high rates of certain health issues. This means more nurses could be available to provide care and education where it's needed most.
Today, there is no specific federal program that requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish, expand, and sustain a public health nursing workforce through dedicated grants. If this bill passes, the Public Health Service Act would be changed to require the Department of Health and Human Services to create a grant program. This program would help state, local, and territorial public health departments recruit, hire, and train public health nurses, cover related medical supplies, and administrative costs, with $5,000,000,000 authorized to be appropriated each year from the government's budget year 2026 through 2035.
S 3604 · 119th Congress · January 8, 2026 · AI Summary by gemini-2.5-flash · 5/10
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