Title: Strengthening the Public Health Workforce Act
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Strengthening the Public Health Workforce Act
This bill reauthorizes through FY2025, and otherwise modifies, the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program (a program that awards student loan repayment to individuals with qualifying degrees who commit to work full-time for a federal, state, tribal, or local public health agency for a period of obligated service). Among other changes, the bill eliminates the option for individuals to complete the service obligation in a federal public health agency and expands the scope of qualifying degrees to include those in statistics, computer science, and programs related to information technology.
In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services may take actions to equitably distribute awards among geographic regions and jurisdictional levels and to ensure that at least 50% of individuals who receive loan repayment awards are not employed in qualifying public health agencies at the time they enter the program.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3737 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3737

     To improve the public health workforce loan repayment program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 14, 2020

 Ms. Smith (for herself and Mr. Booker) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To improve the public health workforce loan repayment program.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Strengthening the Public Health 
Workforce Act''.

SEC. 2. PUBLIC HEALTH WORKFORCE LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM.

    Section 776 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 295f-1) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) by striking ``supply of'' and inserting 
                ``supply of, and encourage recruitment of,''; and
                    (B) by striking ``Federal,'';
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1)(A)--
                            (i) by striking ``accredited academic 
                        educational institution in a State or territory 
                        in the final year'' and inserting ``institution 
                        of higher education in the final semester (or 
                        equivalent)'';
                            (ii) by striking ``or health professions 
                        degree or certificate'' and inserting ``degree, 
                        a health professions degree, or a degree in 
                        computer science, information science, 
                        information systems, information technology, or 
                        statistics'';
                            (iii) by striking ``Federal,''; and
                            (iv) by adding ``or'' after the semicolon 
                        at the end;
                    (B) in paragraph (1)(B)--
                            (i) in clause (i)--
                                    (I) by striking ``accredited 
                                educational institution in a State or 
                                territory'' and inserting ``institution 
                                of higher education''; and
                                    (II) by striking ``or health 
                                professions degree or certificate'' and 
                                inserting ``degree, a health 
                                professions degree, or a degree in 
                                computer science, information science, 
                                information systems, information 
                                technology, or statistics''; and
                            (ii) in clause (ii), by striking 
                        ``Federal,''; and
                    (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ``section 455(m), 
                428J, 428K, 428L, or 460'' and inserting ``section 428K 
                or 428L'';
            (3) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``or 
                certificate''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (2)--
                            (i) by striking ``Federal,''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``equal to the greater 
                        of--'' and all that follows through the end of 
                        subparagraph (B) and inserting ``of at least 2 
                        consecutive years;'';
            (4) in subsection (d)--
                    (A) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows:
            ``(1) In general.--A loan repayment provided for an 
        individual under a written contract under the Program shall 
        consist of payment, in accordance with paragraph (2), for the 
        individual toward the outstanding principal and interest on 
        education loans incurred by the individual in the pursuit of 
        the relevant degree in accordance with the terms of the 
        contract.'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2)--
                            (i) by striking ``For each year'' and 
                        inserting the following:
                    ``(A) In general.--For each year''; and
                            (ii) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(B) Considerations.--The Secretary may take 
                action in making awards to ensure that--
                            ``(i) not less than 50 percent of contracts 
                        under subsection (c) are awarded to 
                        individuals, who at the time of entering into 
                        the contract, are not employed by a local, 
                        State, or tribal public health agency or a 
                        related training fellowship, as recognized by 
                        the Secretary; and
                            ``(ii) the contracts provided under 
                        subsection (c) are equitably distributed 
                        among--
                                    ``(I) the geographical regions of 
                                the United States; and
                                    ``(II) local, State, and tribal 
                                public health departments.''; and
                    (C) by amending paragraph (3) to read as follows:
            ``(3) Tax treatment of payments.--For purposes of the 
        Internal Revenue Code of 1986, a payment made under this 
        section shall be treated in the same manner as an amount 
        received under section 338B(g), as described in section 
        108(f)(4) of such Code.'';
            (5) in subsection (e)--
                    (A) by striking ``receiving a degree or certificate 
                from a health professions or other related school'' and 
                inserting ``with a contract to serve under subsection 
                (c)''; and
                    (B) by inserting ``or extended'' after 
                ``postponed'';
            (6) by redesignating subsection (g) as subsection (h);
            (7) by inserting after subsection (f) the following:
    ``(g) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Institution of higher education.--The term 
        `institution of higher education' has the meaning given the 
        term in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
            ``(2) Full-time.--The term `full-time', with respect to 
        employment, means employment--
                    ``(A) with a single qualifying employer for not 
                less than 30 hours per week; or
                    ``(B) with 2 or more qualifying employers for a 
                total of not less than 30 hours per week.
            ``(3) Education loan.--The term `education loan' means--
                    ``(A) any loan made, insured, or guaranteed under 
                part B, D, or E of title IV of the Higher Education Act 
                of 1965;
                    ``(B) any loan made under subpart II of part A of 
                this title or part E of title VIII;
                    ``(C) a private education loan, as defined in 
                section 140 of the Truth in Lending Act; or
                    ``(D) any other loan funded, insured, or guaranteed 
                by any Federal agency that is not the Department of 
                Education and that is issued directly to a student.''; 
                and
            (8) in subsection (h), as so redesignated, by striking 
        ``$195,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, and such sums as may be 
        necessary for each of fiscal years 2011 through 2015'' and 
        inserting ``$200,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 
        2025''.
                                 <all>