Sponsors (3)
The bill aims to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity—especially for racial/ethnic minority and Indigenous people—by expanding representative reviews, research, data standards, and coverage definitions, but it does so through modest federal spending that may impose administrative burdens, privacy challenges, and limited near-term reach without further funding or safeguards.
Pregnant and postpartum people from racial/ethnic minority communities and Indigenous communities will get more culturally informed, representative reviews of pregnancy-related deaths and severe maternal harms because committees must include community representatives and funded tribal engagement.
Reviews will expand to cover severe maternal morbidity (including mental health, substance use, suicide, and overdose) and use standardized definitions for pregnancy-associated/related and 1-year postpartum windows, improving identification of preventable causes and enabling targeted prevention.
The bill provides dedicated federal funding streams to support community engagement, tribal studies, and maternal health research (authorizations for community engagement, a tribal study, and minority-serving institution research), enabling capacity building and sustained research into causes and solutions.
The bill increases federal spending (multiple authorizations and a 3‑year study), creating added costs for taxpayers and potential budget trade-offs.
Authorized funding levels are modest relative to nationwide need, so limited grant pools may constrain scale and leave many states, tribes, and institutions under-resourced.
New duties, grant applications, reporting, data linkage, and expanded review scope will create administrative burdens and staffing strains for maternal mortality review committees, state/local health agencies, and health facilities.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes grants, research, and federal reviews to improve maternal mortality/morbidity data, expand review scope, study AI/AN outcomes, and fund MSI research.
Official title: Amend the Public Health Service Act to improve maternal health data collection processes and quality measures, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 25, 2026 by Tina Smith · Last progress March 25, 2026
Creates new grant and research programs and directs federal reviews to improve how maternal deaths, severe maternal morbidity, and other adverse pregnancy outcomes are identified, understood, and prevented—with special emphasis on community engagement, racial and ethnic disparities, and American Indian/Alaska Native populations. It funds programs to recruit and support nonclinical community members for maternal mortality review committees, expands what committees review (including mental‑health and substance‑use–related pregnancy deaths), directs administrative review of maternal health data systems, requires a focused study of AI/AN maternal outcomes, and funds research at minority‑serving institutions.