[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2594 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2594

 To amend the Public Health Service Act to establish authority for the 
   inclusion of tertiary-care nurses in the program for the National 
             Health Service Corps, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 23, 2001

 Mr. Jones of North Carolina (for himself, Mrs. Clayton, Mr. Tancredo, 
Mr. Taylor of North Carolina, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Stenholm, and Mr. Goode) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                          Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Public Health Service Act to establish authority for the 
   inclusion of tertiary-care nurses in the program for the National 
             Health Service Corps, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Nursing Shortage Response Act of 
2001''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE CORPS; AUTHORITY OF SECRETARY REGARDING 
              TERTIARY-CARE NURSES.

    Subpart II of part D of title III of the Public Health Service Act 
(42 U.S.C. 254d et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 336A the 
following section:

               ``authority regarding tertiary-care nurses

    ``Sec. 336B. (a) In General.--
            ``(1) Determination of shortage.--The authorities described 
        in this section for the Secretary are effective, 
        notwithstanding any other provision of this subpart, if the 
        Secretary determines that a significant number of public and 
        nonprofit private hospitals have shortages of tertiary-care 
        nurses.
            ``(2) Tertiary-care nurses.--For purposes of this section, 
        the term `tertiary-care nurse' means a registered nurse (under 
        applicable legal requirements) who provides tertiary care, 
        without regard to whether the nurse has received advanced nurse 
        education within the meaning of section 811.
    ``(b) Inclusion in Corps Program; Scholarship and Loan Repayment 
Programs.--The Secretary may under subsection (a) accept tertiary-care 
nurses as Corps members, and may provide for the participation of such 
nurses in the Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs.
    ``(c) Health Professional Shortage Areas.--
            ``(1) In general.--In establishing criteria under section 
        332(b) for the designation of health professional shortage 
        areas, the Secretary may under subsection (a)--
                    ``(A) include tertiary-care nurses in determining 
                the number of health professionals for purposes of the 
                ratio described in section 332(b)(1); and
                    ``(B) establish criteria for otherwise considering 
                tertiary-care nurses in designating health professional 
                shortage areas.
            ``(2) Effect on certain shortage areas.--In the case of a 
        health professional shortage area that was designated by the 
        Secretary under section 332 before the date of the enactment of 
        the Nursing Shortage Response Act of 2001, the Secretary may 
        not terminate the designation on the basis of criteria 
        established under paragraph (1).''.
                                 <all>