Investing in America's Future Act of 2004

Bill: 108-s-2739
Sponsor: Sen. Bingaman, Jeff [D-NM]
Introduced: 2004-07-22 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: AIDS (Disease)
Access to health care
Authorization
Commuting
Compensatory education
Congress
Congressional investigations
Congressional reporting requirements
Continuing education
Cost effectiveness
Crime and Law Enforcement
Data banks
Day care
Demography
Department of Health and Human Services
Distance education
Drug abuse
Drug abuse treatment
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Elementary and secondary education
Elementary education
Employee training
English language
Evaluation research (Social action programs)
Families
Family violence
Federal advisory bodies
Federal aid to education
Federal aid to health facilities
Finance and Financial Sector
Geriatrics
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Governmental investigations
Grants-in-aid
Health information systems
Higher education
Homeless
Housing and Community Development
Human immunodeficiency viruses
Labor and Employment
Labor statistics
Labor supply
Loan defaults
Managed care
Mathematics
Medicaid
Medical education
Medical residents
Medical technology
Medically uninsured
Medicare
Mentoring
Minorities
Minorities in medicine
Minority education
Nurses
Paramedical personnel
Performance measurement
Physicians
Public health personnel
Public meetings
Public service advertising
Quality of care
Recruiting of employees
Rural health
Scholarships
Science, Technology, Communications
Scientific education
Secondary education
Social Welfare
Student loan funds
Teacher education
Teacher supply and demand
Teachers
Transportation and Public Works
Travel costs
Victims of crimes
Vocational guidance
Welfare recipients

Summary:
action_date: 2004-07-22
text: 
Investing in America's Future Act of 2004 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop public service announcements to promote the allied health professions.
 
Requires the Secretary to award grants to promote the allied health professions, including by: (1) increasing education opportunities; (2) expanding enrollment into allied health programs; and (3) developing retention strategies.
 
Requires the Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, to provide for faculty loan funds to increase the number of qualified allied health faculty.
 
Requires the Secretary to: (1) provide scholarships to individuals seeking allied health education who agree to provide service in rural and other medically underserved areas with personnel shortages; (2) develop a system for collecting and analyzing workforce data to determine practitioner shortages and project future needs; and (3) include allied health schools among the schools eligible to receive grants to support Centers of Excellence in health professions education for underrepresented minority individuals.
 
Directs the Comptroller General to establish a Health Workforce Advisory Commission to review the impact Federal workforce policies have on the health care system, analyze the implications of an internationally trained workforce, and make recommendations concerning health workforce policy issues. 
 
Directs the Secretary to establish: (1) a Rural States Physician Recruitment and Retention Demonstration Program for ameliorating physician shortage, recruitment, and retention problems in rural States; and (2) a State-specific health professions database to track the licensing and training of health professionals in each demonstration State.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-07-22
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (text of measure as introduced: CR S8715-8720)
action_date: 2004-07-22
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S8714-8715)
action_date: 2004-07-22
text: Introduced in Senate