Sponsors (14)
The bill expands and clarifies federal support for nursing and health training—boosting capacity, technology, and targeted services—while increasing potential federal spending and creating implementation and equity risks unless appropriations and oversight align with the new authorities.
Nursing students and hospitals: increases capacity to train and graduate more nurses by enabling schools to hire faculty and enroll more students, helping address nursing shortages.
Students in advanced nursing tracks (NP, nurse‑midwifery, nurse anesthesia, clinical nurse specialists) and training programs: explicit eligibility and allowable support (including clinical/preceptor costs) reduces out‑of‑pocket training expenses and broadens who can access federal advanced nursing education funding.
Public health programs, hospitals, and state health systems: higher authorized annual funding for Parts B–D and a modest increase for Part E expands public‑health preparedness and program support.
Taxpayers and the federal budget: expanding allowable costs, grant‑eligible activities, and higher authorized funding increases potential federal outlays and budgetary pressure, potentially requiring offsets.
Hospitals, state programs, and providers: authorization of higher funding does not guarantee appropriations, so programs may not actually receive the increased funds unless Congress provides them.
Smaller or lower‑resourced training programs and students from disadvantaged backgrounds: directing funds to advanced technology and simulation may disproportionately benefit well‑resourced institutions and widen disparities in training capacity.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Expands eligible advanced nursing programs and allowable training expenses, broadens grant uses (simulation, AR, telehealth, labs), and raises authorized funding for FY2026–2030.
Expands federal support for nursing education by explicitly covering advanced practice nursing programs (nurse practitioners, nurse‑midwives, nurse anesthetists, clinical nurse specialists), widening allowable training costs to include clinical education and preceptor expenses, and broadening grant uses to fund simulation, telehealth, audiovisual equipment, augmented reality, and virtual/physical labs. It also authorizes grants to increase numbers of nursing faculty and students, adds survivors of sexual assault to practice priority areas, and permits partnerships with health care facilities to establish or expand clinical education. Raises authorized funding levels for the covered nursing programs for FY2026–2030 (increasing annual authorizations) and makes small terminology and conforming edits to existing statute; actual funding will depend on future appropriations.
Introduced May 22, 2025 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress May 22, 2025