I 

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. GARCI ́A 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Health Nursing 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING WORKFORCE. 

2 Part E of title VII of the Public Health Service Act 

3 (42 U.S.C. 294n et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 

4 the following: 

5 ‘‘Subpart 4—Public Health Nursing Workforce 

6 ‘‘SEC. 780. PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING WORKFORCE. 

7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall carry out ac8 tivities relating to establishing, expanding, and sustaining 

9 a public health nursing workforce, including by making 

10 grants to State, local, and territorial public health depart11 ments. 

12 ‘‘(b) USE OF FUNDS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH DEPART13 MENTS.— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The recipient of a grant 

15 under subsection (a) shall use the grant funds for 

16 the following: 

17 ‘‘(A) Costs, including wages and benefits, 

18 relating to the recruiting, hiring, and training 

19 licensed registered nurses— 

20 ‘‘(i) to serve as public health nurses 

21 providing health care services and edu22 cation regarding preventive health, nutri23 tion, infectious diseases, chronic disease 

24 management, and maternal health, pre25 natal, and postpartum care in order to imVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:47 Dec 30, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6768.IH H6768

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1 prove maternal and infant health out2 comes; 

3 ‘‘(ii) who are employed by the State, 

4 territorial, or local public health depart5 ment involved, particularly in medically un6 derserved areas; and 

7 ‘‘(iii) who work in public health facili8 ties, including mobile health clinics and 

9 acute care hospitals, or who provide home 

10 visitation. 

11 ‘‘(B) Costs of medical supplies, including 

12 personal protective equipment, necessary to 

13 carry out the activities described in subpara14 graph (A). 

15 ‘‘(C) Administrative costs and activities re16 lating to grant activities. 

17 ‘‘(2) SUBGRANTS.—The recipient of a grant 

18 under subsection (a) may make subgrants to local 

19 health departments to be used for the activities de20 scribed in paragraph (1). 

21 ‘‘(c) PRIORITY.—In selecting recipients of grants 

22 under subsection (a), the Secretary shall give priority to 

23 applicants that— 

24 ‘‘(1) propose to serve— 


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1 ‘‘(A) areas with populations that have a 

2 high rate of chronic disease, infant mortality, or 

3 maternal morbidity and mortality; 

4 ‘‘(B) low-income populations, including 

5 medically underserved populations (as defined 

6 in section 330(b)); 

7 ‘‘(C) populations residing in health profes8 sional shortage areas (as defined in section 

9 332(a)); 

10 ‘‘(D) populations residing in maternity 

11 care health professional target areas identified 

12 under section 332(k); or 

13 ‘‘(E) rural or traditionally underserved 

14 populations; 

15 ‘‘(2) demonstrate a plan for providing services, 

16 to the maximum extent practicable, in the language 

17 and cultural context more appropriate to individuals 

18 expected to be served by the program; and 

19 ‘‘(3) have a documented collective bargaining 

20 agreement with 1 or more labor organizations rep21 resenting employees of the applicant or have an ex22 plicit policy not to interfere with the rights of em23 ployees of the applicant under section 7 of the Na24 tional Labor Relations Act. 


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1 ‘‘(d) MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT.—The recipient of 

2 a grant under subsection (a) shall agree to maintain ex3 penditures of non-Federal amounts for activities described 

4 in subsection (b) at a level that is not less than the level 

5 of such expenditures maintained by the recipient for the 

6 fiscal year preceding the fiscal year for which the recipient 

7 receives such a grant 

8 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

9 is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 

10 out this section $5,000,000,000 for each of fiscal years 

11 2024 through 2033.’’. 

Æ 


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