Sponsors (4)
Introduced May 29, 2025 by Andrea Salinas · Last progress May 29, 2025
The bill reduces financial barriers and targets scholarships to grow a more diverse SUD and behavioral/mental health workforce in shortage areas, but it imposes binding service obligations and relies on uncertain appropriations, trading recipient flexibility and funding certainty for expanded provider access in high-need locations.
Students training in substance use disorder (SUD) and behavioral/mental health fields receive scholarships that expand the workforce pipeline, increasing the number of providers serving shortage and high-overdose areas.
Students (particularly low-income trainees) get scholarships that cover tuition, fees, books, and lab expenses and are excluded from taxable income, increasing their net financial benefit and lowering barriers to entering these professions.
The program prioritizes applicants likely to remain serving in shortage areas and those from underrepresented groups, promoting greater workforce diversity and longer-term local retention of providers.
The program’s funding level and scale are uncertain because authorized amounts (e.g., $75M/year FY2026–2030) depend on annual appropriations and the Replacement Fund also relies partly on collected damages, limiting guaranteed long-term availability.
Recipients face binding service contracts that can impose significant financial liability (damages owed to the United States) if they breach obligations, creating economic risk for trainees.
The required service obligation — full-time covered employment with limited allowed breaks (no more than one year between service years) — restricts employment flexibility and geographic mobility for recipients.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a HRSA-run scholarship program that funds students training for SUD and behavioral/mental health jobs in exchange for service in mental health shortage areas.
Establishes a new federal scholarship program, administered by HRSA, to fund full-time students enrolled in approved training for substance use disorder treatment and behavioral/mental health careers in exchange for a period of obligated service in Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas. Applicants must apply, sign a written contract accepting scholarship payments and service obligations, and receive plain-language information about rights, liabilities, and how awards and placements are decided. The bill requires the agency to provide clear application and contract forms, distribute information to health professions schools, encourage retention of providers in shortage areas, and may provide transition assistance for clinicians nearing the end of their obligated service. The text sets program structure and applicant protections but does not include explicit funding, definitions of covered employment, or detailed service and repayment terms in the provided sections.