S1874-119

What This Bill Does

The Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act expands advanced nursing education grants to nurse practitioner, nurse-midwifery, nurse anesthesia, and clinical nurse specialist students and permits support for clinical education and preceptors. Capacity grants may fund audiovisual equipment, simulation and augmented-reality resources, telehealth, physical and virtual laboratories, additional faculty and students, services for sexual-assault survivors, and clinical-education partnerships with health facilities and clinics. A nurse-faculty demonstration must provide accredited schools up to three years of grants that close the gap between qualifying faculty salaries and comparable clinical-nursing pay. Schools must supply salary and vacancy data, maintain baseline salaries, use the full grant for supplements, and plan sustainable retention. HHS must distribute awards geographically, prioritize need and vulnerable populations, reserve at least 20 percent for states below 1.5 million people, report after three years, and stop new awards after September 30, 2031; $15 million is authorized for fiscal years 2027-2031. A separate three-year pilot may fund or contract with state agencies, nursing boards, nonprofits, and schools to create or enhance nursing-workforce centers. Recipients provide one nonfederal dollar per four federal dollars, collect standardized training and workforce data, offer technical assistance, and supply annual-report information. Up to $1.5 million annually in fiscal years 2027-2029 may be used only when core title VIII funding exceeds its 2026 amount. Overall title VIII authorizations rise to $184.337 million and $121.135 million annually for fiscal years 2027-2031.

Who Benefits and How

Advanced-practice nursing students, nursing faculty, schools of nursing, clinical preceptors, and health-facility training partners gain broader eligible costs, modern training tools, salary supplements, and capacity support. Schools in small states, shortage areas, and programs serving vulnerable patients receive explicit faculty-grant priority. State nursing boards, workforce centers, nonprofits, researchers, employers, nurses, rural communities, and patients gain more standardized workforce data, shortage analysis, technical assistance, and strategies for recruitment and retention. Survivors of sexual assault gain inclusion in supported practice-education activities.

Who Bears the Burden and How

HHS and HRSA must administer larger programs, compare clinical and faculty salaries, review vacancy and sustainability plans, enforce geographic and small-state allocation rules, evaluate retention, manage a matching pilot, and report to Congress. Federal taxpayers bear costs if authorized funds are appropriated. Schools seeking faculty grants must submit detailed three-year salary histories, attestations, vacancy projections, and sustainability plans and preserve existing salary levels. Workforce-center recipients must provide a 20-percent nonfederal match, collect and report standardized data, document outcomes, and support federal evaluations.

Key Provisions

• Expands advanced nursing grants to four advanced-practice fields and clinical-education and preceptor costs.
• Authorizes modern simulation, telehealth, laboratory, faculty, student, survivor-service, and clinical-partnership capacity uses.
• Creates a three-year nurse-faculty salary-supplement demonstration with need and geographic priorities.
• Appropriates authority for $15 million through fiscal year 2031 and ends new faculty grants after that year.
• Creates a matched three-year state and regional nursing-workforce center data pilot.
• Requires workforce-center data, technical assistance, evaluation, and annual congressional reports.
• Extends larger title VIII nursing-workforce authorization levels through fiscal year 2031.