[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6768 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6768

  To amend the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services to carry out activities to establish, expand, 
 and sustain a public health nursing workforce, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 13, 2023

    Ms. Stansbury (for herself, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mrs. Watson 
 Coleman, Ms. Norton, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Robert 
 Garcia of California, Ms. Caraveo, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Frost, Ms. Waters, 
 Ms. Omar, Mr. Cohen, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Chu, Ms. 
 Pressley, Ms. Bush, Mr. Carson, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mrs. Peltola, and 
  Mr. Casar) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services to carry out activities to establish, expand, 
 and sustain a public health nursing workforce, 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 ``Public Health Nursing Act''.

SEC. 2. PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING WORKFORCE.

    Part E of title VII of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 
294n et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

              ``Subpart 4--Public Health Nursing Workforce

``SEC. 780. PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING WORKFORCE.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary shall carry out activities 
relating to establishing, expanding, and sustaining a public health 
nursing workforce, including by making grants to State, local, and 
territorial public health departments.
    ``(b) Use of Funds for Public Health Departments.--
            ``(1) In general.--The recipient of a grant under 
        subsection (a) shall use the grant funds for the following:
                    ``(A) Costs, including wages and benefits, relating 
                to the recruiting, hiring, and training licensed 
                registered nurses--
                            ``(i) to serve as public health nurses 
                        providing health care services and education 
                        regarding preventive health, nutrition, 
                        infectious diseases, chronic disease 
                        management, and maternal health, prenatal, and 
                        postpartum care in order to improve maternal 
                        and infant health outcomes;
                            ``(ii) who are employed by the State, 
                        territorial, or local public health department 
                        involved, particularly in medically underserved 
                        areas; and
                            ``(iii) who work in public health 
                        facilities, including mobile health clinics and 
                        acute care hospitals, or who provide home 
                        visitation.
                    ``(B) Costs of medical supplies, including personal 
                protective equipment, necessary to carry out the 
                activities described in subparagraph (A).
                    ``(C) Administrative costs and activities relating 
                to grant activities.
            ``(2) Subgrants.--The recipient of a grant under subsection 
        (a) may make subgrants to local health departments to be used 
        for the activities described in paragraph (1).
    ``(c) Priority.--In selecting recipients of grants under subsection 
(a), the Secretary shall give priority to applicants that--
            ``(1) propose to serve--
                    ``(A) areas with populations that have a high rate 
                of chronic disease, infant mortality, or maternal 
                morbidity and mortality;
                    ``(B) low-income populations, including medically 
                underserved populations (as defined in section 330(b));
                    ``(C) populations residing in health professional 
                shortage areas (as defined in section 332(a));
                    ``(D) populations residing in maternity care health 
                professional target areas identified under section 
                332(k); or
                    ``(E) rural or traditionally underserved 
                populations;
            ``(2) demonstrate a plan for providing services, to the 
        maximum extent practicable, in the language and cultural 
        context more appropriate to individuals expected to be served 
        by the program; and
            ``(3) have a documented collective bargaining agreement 
        with 1 or more labor organizations representing employees of 
        the applicant or have an explicit policy not to interfere with 
        the rights of employees of the applicant under section 7 of the 
        National Labor Relations Act.
    ``(d) Maintenance of Effort.--The recipient of a grant under 
subsection (a) shall agree to maintain expenditures of non-Federal 
amounts for activities described in subsection (b) at a level that is 
not less than the level of such expenditures maintained by the 
recipient for the fiscal year preceding the fiscal year for which the 
recipient receives such a grant
    ``(e) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to the Secretary to carry out this section $5,000,000,000 
for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2033.''.
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