GREEN Hospitals Act

Key Points

• The bill authorizes $100 billion for hospitals and clinics to build or upgrade facilities to survive climate disasters like floods, wildfires, and heat waves, on top of existing Hill-Burton construction grants.
• Eligible projects include solar power with battery backup, high-efficiency heating and cooling, air filtration, green roofs, and flood-control infrastructure so hospitals can keep operating during power outages or extreme weather.
• Priority for funding goes to hospitals that mainly serve Medicare and Medicaid patients or the uninsured, and to facilities in neighborhoods with poor air quality, little green space, or high pollution burdens.
• A separate $5 billion Planning and Evaluation Grant Program helps states, tribal governments, and nonprofits design these projects, with at least half of that money reserved for environmental justice communities and individual grants capped at $500,000.
• To receive funding, facilities must pay construction workers prevailing wages under Davis-Bacon rules and show they either have a union contract or a policy not to interfere with workers organizing.