Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act

Bill: 112-hr-1929
Sponsor: Rep. Sensenbrenner, F. James, Jr. [R-WI-5]
Introduced: 2011-05-13 in the House
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Administrative remedies
Allied health services
Citizenship and naturalization
Department of Homeland Security
Education programs funding
Foreign labor
Government information and archives
Health personnel
Immigration status and procedures
Medical education
Nursing
Student aid and college costs
Teaching, teachers, curricula
User charges and fees
Visas and passports
World health

Summary:
action_date: 2011-05-13
text: 
Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act - Amends the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 to exempt until September 30, 2014, petitions for employment-based immigrants who are qualified physical therapists or professional nurses from numerical limitations on worldwide levels of employment-based immigrants and numerical limitations on individuals from individual foreign states, subject to a cap of 20,000 visas. Establishes fees for such visas.
 
Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to award annual grants to nursing schools to increase the numbers of faculty and students at such schools. Establishes the Domestic Nursing Enhancement Account in the Treasury with funds from visa fees under this Act a to fund such grant program.
 
 
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to: (1) allow an alien who has been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence and who is a physician or other health care worker to work in a candidate country (defined to include a lower middle income country or one experiencing a natural disaster) without losing eligibility for naturalization; and (2) make inadmissible alien physicians or health care workers who have an outstanding obligation to their country of origin to work as a physician or other health care worker based upon financial assistance received from such country for medical training. Allows a waiver of inadmissibility under certain circumstances.
 
Directs the Secretary of Labor to establish a partnership program to award grants to certain health care and training entities to provide education to nurses and create a pipeline to nursing for incumbent ancillary health care workers who wish to advance their careers.
 
Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect and report to Congress on specified data on alien workers employed as professional nurses. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-07-11
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement.
action_date: 2011-05-23
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
action_date: 2011-05-13
text: Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2011-05-13
text: Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2011-05-13
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2011-05-13
text: Introduced in House