Nursing Excluded As ``professional'' Degree By Department of Education

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, as this headline from Newsweek magazine reports, a few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education issued probably the most out-of-touch, offensive new rule in the history of the Department, excluding nursing from its definition of ``professional occupations,'' part of its new graduate student loan program, which was created by the one big, ugly bill.

For the 4.7 million actively registered nurses and the 250,000 students enrolled in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral nursing programs across the United States, this decree that they are not professionals is both a disgraceful insult that shocks the conscience and an order which will condemn America's nurses into second-class status for Federal graduate student loan assistance.

Madam Speaker, this legal demotion is happening at a time when our country is experiencing a nursing shortage. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that we have 195,000 unfilled nursing positions in this country. The Department of Health and Human Services goes even higher. It says that it is 280,000. McKinsey & Company, a respected think tank, predicts that the shortage will grow to 400,000 by the end of this decade.

Madam Speaker, Members of this House don't really need to spend much time reading these reports to know that that shortage is real. Just go to any hospital, nursing home, or health clinic in your district, and you will hear the same thing: they are short-staffed in ERs, exam rooms, operating rooms, and on the floors. Short-staffing is bad for patients, and it is bad for nursing burnout.

Despite this blindingly obvious reality, the Education Department's designation is putting a hard cap of $100,000, with no indexing, on graduate student loans for nurses, all part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which my Republican colleagues passed in June. It is a healthcare monstrosity, which cut $1 trillion from Medicaid, cut out premium subsidies for 22 million Americans for their healthcare exchange plans, and now will suffocate the growth of our Nation's caring professions.

If you doubt my words, then maybe you will listen to the president of the American Nursing Association, the largest nursing professional organization in America. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, the president, states: ``Nurses make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce and [are] the backbone of our Nation's health system. At a time when healthcare in our country faces a historic nurse shortage and rising demands, limiting nurses' access to funding for graduate school threatens the very foundation of patient care.''

Well said.

Madam Speaker, ANA is doing more. They have organized a petition drive because this rule goes into effect next July. As of the middle of last week, they had 180,000 signatures, and that will grow.

Madam Speaker, it definitely will grow in the coming days. Every Member of this House--and I will be one of them--should write to the Department of Education saying that this rule makes no sense in terms of the healthcare system today and, also, is an insult to the people who go through extensive training, testing, and certification before they are allowed to practice their caring profession.

While we are at it, we should also help the other professions which were excluded by the Department of Education: physician assistants, physical therapists, audiologists, speech-language pathologists, architects, accountants, advanced degree educators, social workers, dental hygienists, and occupational therapists.

This proposal by the Department of Education is madness, and Congress should actually do more than just support the regulatory process in terms of reversing these rules. We should also go back and revisit the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and recognize, again, what our healthcare sector is telling us: We are risking the financial solvency of institutions all across America, and, again, we are damaging our future in terms of getting young, motivated people to join the healthcare professions.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source