Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act
Congress Proposes Recapturing 40,000 Unused Visas to Hire More Nurses and Doctors
Stalled
No legislative action in over 90 days.
Legislative Progress
Key Points
- This bill would take up to 40,000 employment visas that were never used between 1992 and 2024 and give them to foreign-trained medical professionals to help fill staffing gaps.
- The plan sets aside 25,000 visas specifically for professional nurses and 15,000 for physicians who want to work in the United States.
- To get workers into hospitals faster, these visas would not be limited by the usual 'country caps,' which often cause people from certain nations to wait many years for approval.
- Family members of these doctors and nurses would be allowed to come to the U.S. with them, and these family members would not count toward the 40,000-person limit.
- Employers must sign a statement proving that hiring a foreign nurse or doctor will not take a job away from a qualified American worker or lower the wages of local staff.
- The government would be required to process these specific applications quickly and would not be allowed to charge the typical extra fees for 'premium' fast-tracking service.
Impact Analysis
Personal Impact
Life & Work
Nurses who are union members may have mixed feelings about this bill. The labor attestation requirement — which says employers must certify that hiring a foreign worker won't displace a U.S. worker — provides some protection. However, a larger labor supply could also reduce upward wage pressure that unions have leveraged during the nursing shortage.
Programs
Disabilities
Milestones
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
Votes
No votes have been recorded for this legislation yet.
Related News
5 articles
Congress reintroduces AHA-supported, bipartisan workforce bill supporting foreign nurses, physicians
Bipartisan legislation (H.R. 5283 / S. 2759) was reintroduced to address nurse and physician shortages by recapturing 25,000 unused visas for nurses and 15,000 for physicians. The bill requires employer attestation and licensing checks to ensure no displacement of U.S. workers.
Bipartisan 'Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act' Aims to Ease Nurse, Doctor Shortages
Sens. Dick Durbin and Kevin Cramer reintroduced the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act to convert unused immigrant visas into green cards for foreign-trained healthcare professionals already in the U.S. on temporary visas, bypassing country-based caps to alleviate staffing shortfalls.
Immigrant doctors face challenges to work, even in coronavirus pandemic
More than 3 million immigrant healthcare workers face paperwork hurdles while combating the pandemic. The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act is highlighted as a solution to award unused green cards to immigrant physicians regardless of nationality to fill critical gaps.
Source Information
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act
Data Sources
Sponsor
Cosponsors
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