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Durbin, Hagel, Reintroduce Bill to Increase Public Health Workforce

Date: March 3, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Health and Health Care


DURBIN, HAGEL, REINTRODUCE BILL TO INCREASE PUBLIC HEALTH WORKFORCE

Thursday, March 3, 2005

[WASHINGTON, DC] - U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) today reintroduced the Public Health Workforce Development Act, legislation to increase the pipeline of qualified public health workers at the federal, state, and local levels.

The Hagel-Durbin bill would create scholarships for students going into the public health field. It also encourages current public health professionals to remain in the field by providing loan repayments in exchange for a commitment to serve a designated number of years. The Senators first introduced this bipartisan legislation in the 108th Congress.

"We can't afford to put off efforts to ensure our nation has an adequate number of public health professionals," said Durbin. "The scholarships and student loan repayment programs in this bill are a needed incentive to recruit and retain highly qualified professionals to our nation's public health workforce."

"There are critical public health workforce shortages in federal, state, and local public health agencies. The ability of the public health system to respond to emerging infectious diseases like West Nile Virus, food-borne illnesses, or bioterrorism relies on a well-trained, adequately staffed public health network at all levels. It is important that we address this problem before it becomes a crisis," Hagel said.

The average age of lab technicians, epidemiologists, environmental health experts, microbiologists, IT specialists, public health administrators and others who make up the public health workforce is 47 -- seven years older than the average age of the nation's workforce.

To encourage young people to enter the public health field, the Hagel-Durbin bill authorizes $35 million per year for scholarships and $195 million per year for loan repayments. Eighty percent of the funds would be dedicated for recruiting public health workers at the state and local level. Bonus payments would be available to those who agree to work in underserved areas.

http://durbin.senate.gov/releases.cfm

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