[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 23, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E901-E902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   INTRODUCTION OF THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE CORPS REINVESTMENT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 23, 2001

  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join with my 
good friends Sherry Boehlert, Mike Capuano and many other of my 
distinguished colleagues to introduce the National Health Service Corps 
Reinvestment Act.
  Signed into law by President Nixon, the National Health Service Corps 
(NHSC) has placed more than 22,000 health care professionals in rural 
and urban areas across the country. Launched in 1972 to combat the 
growing number of communities without a health care provider, the 
Service Corps is a critical element of our nation's health care safety 
net.
  The National Health Service Corps Reinvestment Act of 2001 will 
reauthorize the National Health Service Corps for five years and 
increases its funding by 50 percent. In addition, this legislation 
amends the tax code, making the loan repayment and the scholarship 
program tax exempt. Today, the scholarships and loan payments are 
considered taxable income. This measure would eliminate the federal tax 
requirement on both of these programs. By cutting taxes for students 
and practitioners, it removes the tax burden on these health care 
professionals and allows more money to be reinvested into the Service 
Corps.
  Adding needed flexibility, the National Health Service Corps 
Reinvestment Act of 2001 also establishes a demonstration project to 
allow the NHSC scholarship and loan repayment programs recipients to 
fulfill their commitment on a part-time basis.
  Lastly, this legislation includes two additional measures to simplify 
the application process for both the National Health Service Corps and 
community health centers.
  Today, more than 2,400 Service Corps clinicians serve in every state, 
the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Pacific Basin. In 1999, 
in my great state of New York, 240 National Health Service Corps 
practitioners provided essential health services to thousands of

[[Page E902]]

New Yorkers in need (specifically, 131 primary care physicians, 32 
physician assistants, 27 nurse practitioners, 27 dentists and oral 
health clinicians, 13 certified nurse midwives, and 10 mental and 
behavioral health professionals served in the NHSC in New York).
  For many Americans, community health centers provide their only 
access to a doctor, a dentist, a nurse midwife, or a mental health 
professional. In many instances, the treatment offered in these health 
clinics is provided by a Service Corps clinician. The National Health 
Service Corps saves lives every day by providing early, preventive 
health care to those in poor, rural, urban, or otherwise medically 
underserved communities.
  Nearly two million individuals in over 4,000 health shortage areas 
receive their health care through the National Health Service Corps. 
Unfortunately, only about 12 percent of the overall need is being met 
by the program. In 1999, the Corps had to turn away one-half of the 
underserved communities that requested a provider, because of a lack of 
funds.
  Communities depend on these Service Corps clinicians, so we must 
strengthen the NHSC. Unfortunately, the authorization for this 
successful program expired in 2000. Illustrating the urgent need for 
congressional action, last year we were faced with press accounts such 
as ``Cuts in Loan Program Squeeze Doctors Who Work With Poor,'' [The 
New York Times, 7/30/00] and ``Shortchanging Young MDs'' [Boston Globe, 
8/1/00]. M.J. Murphy, a nurse practitioner and constituent of mine, was 
included in the New York Times story. Ms. Murphy works at a health 
clinic which lost its eligibility last year due to a lack of Service 
Corps funding.
  As a representative of nearly a dozen teaching hospitals and several 
nursing, dental and medical schools, a modernized National Health 
Service Corps is important for the constituents of my district. Beyond 
my district, a healthy and strengthened National Health Service Corps 
will continue to meet the medical needs of underserved and vulnerable 
populations across the country, as it has for nearly thirty years.
  So, on behalf of the millions of Americans receiving quality health 
care from Service Corps clinicians, I urge my fellow colleagues to join 
me in support of the National Health Service Corps Reinvestment Act.

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