III 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 54
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
MARCH 6, 2003
Received and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the Congress that there should be 
established an annual National Visiting Nurse Associa-
tion Week.
Whereas visiting nurse associations (VNAs) are nonprofit 
home health agencies that, for over 120 years, have been 
united in their mission to provide cost-effective and com-
passionate home and community-based health care to in-
dividuals, regardless of the individuals’ condition or abil-
ity to pay for services;
HCON 54 RFS 
Whereas there are more than 500 visiting nurse associations, 
which employ more than 90,000 clinicians, provide health 
care to more than 4,000,000 people each year, and pro-
vide a critical safety net in communities by developing a 
network of community support services that enable indi-
viduals to live independently at home; 
Whereas visiting nurse associations have historically served as 
primary public health care providers in their commu-
nities, and are today one of the largest providers of mass 
immunizations in the medicare program (delivering over 
2,500,000 influenza immunizations annually); 
Whereas visiting nurse associations are often the home health 
providers of last resort, serving the most chronic of con-
ditions (such as congestive heart failure, chronic obstruc-
tive pulmonary disease, AIDS, and quadriplegia) and in-
dividuals with the least ability to pay for services (more 
than 50 percent of all medicaid home health admissions 
are by visiting nurse associations); 
Whereas any visiting nurse association budget surplus is rein-
vested in supporting the association’s mission through 
services, including charity care, adult day care centers, 
wellness clinics, Meals-on-Wheels, and immunization pro-
grams; 
Whereas visiting nurse associations and other nonprofit home 
health agencies care for the highest percentage of termi-
nally ill and bedridden patients; 
Whereas thousands of visiting nurse association volunteers 
across the Nation devote time serving as individual agen-
cy board members, raising funds, visiting patients in 
their homes, assisting in wellness clinics, and delivering 
meals to patients;
HCON 54 RFS 
Whereas the establishment of an annual National Visiting 
Nurse Association Week would increase public awareness 
of the charity-based missions of visiting nurse associa-
tions and of their ability to meet the needs of chronically 
ill and disabled individuals who prefer to live at home 
rather than in a nursing home, and would spotlight pre-
ventive health clinics, adult day care programs, and other 
customized wellness programs that meet local community 
need; and 
Whereas the second week in May is an appropriate week to 
establish as National Visiting Nurse Association Week: 
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that there 
should be established an annual National Visiting Nurse 
Association Week.
Passed the House of Representatives March 4, 
2003. 
Attest: 
JEFF TRANDAHL, 
Clerk.