Public Health Nursing Act

Key Points

• The bill creates a new federal grant program letting HHS pay state, local, and territorial health departments to recruit, hire, and train public health nurses, with $5 billion authorized every year from 2026 through 2035.
• Grant money can cover nurse wages and benefits, training costs, protective equipment and medical supplies, and administrative expenses, and health departments can pass some of that money along to local agencies through subgrants.
• Priority goes to programs serving areas with high chronic disease, infant mortality, or maternal death rates, low-income and medically underserved populations, health professional shortage areas, and rural communities.
• To keep receiving federal funds, health departments must maintain their existing non-federal spending levels on these nursing programs rather than using the grant to replace money they already spend.
• Applicants get priority if they have a union contract with their nursing staff or a clear policy protecting employees' rights to organize under federal labor law.