[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 132 (Tuesday, December 5, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S11175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       NURSING RELIEF FOR DISADVANTAGED AREAS REAUTHORIZATION ACT

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I would like to go on the record regarding 
H.R. 1285, the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Reauthorization 
Act of 2005, a bill that I support as it moves through the Senate 
today.
  This legislation extends for 3 years the Nursing Relief for 
Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999 which provides nonimmigrant visas for 
nurses in areas where there is a shortage of health professionals.
  Many hospitals across the Nation and, particularly in my home State 
of Texas, have been experiencing great difficulties over the last 
several years in attracting nurses. This shortage has been especially 
severe in both inner-city neighborhoods and in rural isolated areas.
  It was for this reason that in 1999 Congress passed the Nursing 
Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act. This legislation created a new H-1C 
temporary worker program with 500 visas available per year for 
registered nurses. In order to be eligible to petition for an alien 
nurse, a hospital must be located in a health professional shortage 
area as designated by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the 
hospital must have at least 190 acute care beds, and it must have a 
certain percentage of Medicare and Medicaid patients.
  The legislation also included strong protections for American nurses 
by requiring that any H-1C nurses be paid the prevailing wage and 
mandating that hospitals take steps to recruit American nurses. 
Furthermore H-1C nurses may not comprise more than 33 percent of a 
hospital's registered nurses, and these hospitals may not contract out 
any H-1C nurses to other hospitals.
  The legislation before us, H.R. 1285, will reauthorize the H-1C nurse 
program for 3 more years. The H-1C visa category is vital to Texas 
hospitals like McAllen Medical Center and Mercy Health System, located 
in Laredo, TX. The United States is facing a critical nursing shortage 
in the coming years, and this small but significant program is 
essential to our efforts to recruit more nurses to the United States. I 
believe this legislation strikes a balance between the critical need 
for nurses in certain shortage areas while protecting the wages and 
working conditions of U.S. citizen nurses.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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