Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions - S. 2613

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD

SENATE

July 7, 2004

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mr. HAGEL (for himself and Mr. Durbin):

S. 2613. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to establish a scholarship and loan repayment program for public health preparedness workforce development to eliminate critical public health preparedness workforce shortages in Federal, State, and local public health agencies; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing, along with my colleague Senator Hagel, legislation that will help to address the severe workforce shortages within public health agencies throughout the United States. This bill, known as the Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act of 2004, provides financial help to both full and part-time students who are interested in pursuing a career in public health at Federal, State and local public health agencies.

Our Nation faces myriad public health threats and challenges, ranging from emerging diseases such as West Nile virus and SARS to the special needs of an aging population, from bio-terrorism to obesity, tobacco use and environmental hazards. The ability of the public health system to prevent, respond to, and recover from these challenges depends on adequate numbers of well-trained public health professionals in Federal, State, and local public health departments.

However, our public health system has an aging staff nearing retirement and there are not enough students graduating with training in public health disciplines to provide a consistent source of skilled employees to fill the void. The average age of the public health workforce is 47, 7 years older than the average age of the Nation's workforce. The ratio of public health workers to overall population has dropped from 219/100,000 in 1980 to 158/100,000 in 2000. There are already shortages of public health nurses, epidemiologists, environmental health workers, health educators and other public health professionals at Federal, State and local public health agencies. In my home State of Illinois, the Illinois Department of Public Health estimates that they are in need of at least 15 epidemiologists and are having trouble filling those positions.

Further evidence suggests that as much as 50 percent of the current public health workforce at the State level will be retiring in the next 5 years. Losing so many experienced public health workers at a time when the public health workforce should be expanding to meet increased needs presents a clear argument in favor of encouraging more students to enter the many academic fields related to public health such as epidemiology, health education, nursing and environmental health.

To continue to improve the health of our people, we must have a well-trained and dedicated public health workforce. But developing and maintaining the necessary human capital is already a challenge and promises to continue to be a challenge in the future. Our bill would help alleviate this dangerous shortfall of public health professionals by providing scholarships or loan repayments for full and part-time students in public health and for workers with previous public health training who agree to serve at the Federal, State and local level.

The scholarship program will provide scholarships to eligible graduate, undergraduate and community college students to pursue a course of study to prepare to serve in the public health workforce.

The loan repayment program is designed to help pay for education loans incurred by individuals currently employed or about to be employed in a Federal, State or local public health agency.

The grants for the loan repayment program to political jurisdictions at the State and local level will provide funds to the appropriate agencies to operate the loan repayment program.

The bill is supported by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the National Association of City and County Health Officials, the American Public Health Association, and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.

I urge my colleagues to join me in this effort to strengthen the capacity of our Nation to respond to public health threats now and in the years to come. The Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act of 2004 will help provide the public with the educated and well-trained public health workforce to meet the health challenges of the future.