Improving Care in Rural America Reauthorization Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2493, the Improving Care in Rural America Reauthorization Act.

H.R. 2493 reauthorizes programs at the Health Resources & Services Administration that increase access to healthcare services in rural communities.

Rural communities often face significant challenges to accessing quality healthcare, including provider shortages, hospital closures, and long travel times to medical facilities. Rural communities also often face higher rates of poverty and unemployment which can contribute to poor health outcomes.

The community-based programs extended by this bill address the unique needs of the rural communities they serve by collaborating with local networks and partnering organizations. This includes implementing disease prevention and health promotion activities and enhancing healthcare delivery.

The programs also include the Healthy Rural Hometown Initiative, a targeted program that works to address the underlying factors contributing to the five leading causes of death in the United States. That would be heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory disease.

This is an important bill, and I am hopeful that it will gain strong bipartisan support. This legislation comes at the same time rural communities are being devastated by the $1 trillion in healthcare cuts Republicans passed in their big, ugly bill. These cuts are going to have a disproportionate impact on rural Americans. Rural clinics and maternity care centers are already being forced to close their doors, and another 300 rural hospitals are likely to shutter, closing down altogether or reducing services.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased that we are considering this legislation to extend these programs. I encourage all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R.

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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, this is an important piece of legislation, particularly for rural areas. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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