At the end of October, there were 7,679 bills introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
With so many pieces of important legislation constantly in front of lawmakers and staff, it makes the fact that H.R. 728, the Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act, was passed unanimously in the House that much more exciting.
As you may recall, nurses lobbied their members of Congress during ANA’s Hill Day in June to urge their lawmakers to cosponsor this legislation. With your tireless advocacy, you can now say your work on Title VIII is completed in the House.
Additionally, on the other side of the Capitol, the Senate has been working just as hard on Title VIII. During the same week of House passage, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on S. 1399, the Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act. We are pleased to report the legislation successfully went through the committee process and the next step is for a vote on the Senate floor.
With all eyes on the Senate, we ask you to reach out to your Senators and ask them to consider cosponsoring S. 1399. If they are already a cosponsor, ask them to talk to Senate Leadership to bring Title VIII for a vote this year.
While this week has been focused on Title VIII reauthorization, we are continuing to advocate for additional priorities such as the Home Health Planning Improvement Act (S. 296/H.R. 2150) and the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (S. 851/ H.R. 1309), and additional important pieces of legislation.