Strengthening the Public Health Workforce Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3737 To improve the public health workforce loan repayment program. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 14, 2020 Ms. SMITH (for herself and Mr. BOOKER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance A BILL To improve the public health workforce loan repayment program. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strengthening the 4 Public Health Workforce Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. PUBLIC HEALTH WORKFORCE LOAN REPAYMENT 6 PROGRAM. 7 Section 776 of the Public Health Service Act (42 8 U.S.C. 295f–1) is amended— 9 (1) in subsection (a)— 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:55 Jun 03, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3737.IS S3737 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3737 IS (A) by striking ‘‘supply of’’ and inserting 1 ‘‘supply of, and encourage recruitment of,’’; and 2 (B) by striking ‘‘Federal,’’; 3 (2) in subsection (b)— 4 (A) in paragraph (1)(A)— 5 (i) by striking ‘‘accredited academic 6 educational institution in a State or terri- 7 tory in the final year’’ and inserting ‘‘insti- 8 tution of higher education in the final se- 9 mester (or equivalent)’’; 10 (ii) by striking ‘‘or health professions 11 degree or certificate’’ and inserting ‘‘de- 12 gree, a health professions degree, or a de- 13 gree in computer science, information 14 science, information systems, information 15 technology, or statistics’’; 16 (iii) by striking ‘‘Federal,’’; and 17 (iv) by adding ‘‘or’’ after the semi- 18 colon at the end; 19 (B) in paragraph (1)(B)— 20 (i) in clause (i)— 21 (I) by striking ‘‘accredited edu- 22 cational institution in a State or terri- 23 tory’’ and inserting ‘‘institution of 24 higher education’’; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:55 Jun 03, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3737.IS S3737 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3737 IS (II) by striking ‘‘or health profes- 1 sions degree or certificate’’ and insert- 2 ing ‘‘degree, a health professions de- 3 gree, or a degree in computer science, 4 information science, information sys- 5 tems, information technology, or sta- 6 tistics’’; and 7 (ii) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘Fed- 8 eral,’’; and 9 (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘section 10 455(m), 428J, 428K, 428L, or 460’’ and in- 11 serting ‘‘section 428K or 428L’’; 12 (3) in subsection (c)— 13 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘or cer- 14 tificate’’; and 15 (B) in paragraph (2)— 16 (i) by striking ‘‘Federal,’’; and 17 (ii) by striking ‘‘equal to the greater 18 of—’’ and all that follows through the end 19 of subparagraph (B) and inserting ‘‘of at 20 least 2 consecutive years;’’; 21 (4) in subsection (d)— 22 (A) by amending paragraph (1) to read as 23 follows: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:55 Jun 03, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3737.IS S3737 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 3737 IS ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A loan repayment provided 1 for an individual under a written contract under the 2 Program shall consist of payment, in accordance 3 with paragraph (2), for the individual toward the 4 outstanding principal and interest on education 5 loans incurred by the individual in the pursuit of the 6 relevant degree in accordance with the terms of the 7 contract.’’; 8 (B) in paragraph (2)— 9 (i) by striking ‘‘For each year’’ and 10 inserting the following: 11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For each year’’; and 12 (ii) by adding at the end the fol- 13 lowing: 14 ‘‘(B) CONSIDERATIONS.—The Secretary 15 may take action in making awards to ensure 16 that— 17 ‘‘(i) not less than 50 percent of con- 18 tracts under subsection (c) are awarded to 19 individuals, who at the time of entering 20 into the contract, are not employed by a 21 local, State, or tribal public health agency 22 or a related training fellowship, as recog- 23 nized by the Secretary; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:55 Jun 03, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3737.IS S3737 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 3737 IS ‘‘(ii) the contracts provided under 1 subsection (c) are equitably distributed 2 among— 3 ‘‘(I) the geographical regions of 4 the United States; and 5 ‘‘(II) local, State, and tribal pub- 6 lic health departments.’’; and 7 (C) by amending paragraph (3) to read as 8 follows: 9 ‘‘(3) TAX TREATMENT OF PAYMENTS.—For 10 purposes of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, a 11 payment made under this section shall be treated in 12 the same manner as an amount received under sec- 13 tion 338B(g), as described in section 108(f)(4) of 14 such Code.’’; 15 (5) in subsection (e)— 16 (A) by striking ‘‘receiving a degree or cer- 17 tificate from a health professions or other re- 18 lated school’’ and inserting ‘‘with a contract to 19 serve under subsection (c)’’; and 20 (B) by inserting ‘‘or extended’’ after ‘‘post- 21 poned’’; 22 (6) by redesignating subsection (g) as sub- 23 section (h); 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:55 Jun 03, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3737.IS S3737 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 3737 IS (7) by inserting after subsection (f) the fol- 1 lowing: 2 ‘‘(g) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 3 ‘‘(1) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.— 4 The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the 5 meaning given the term in section 101 of the Higher 6 Education Act of 1965. 7 ‘‘(2) FULL-TIME.—The term ‘full-time’, with 8 respect to employment, means employment— 9 ‘‘(A) with a single qualifying employer for 10 not less than 30 hours per week; or 11 ‘‘(B) with 2 or more qualifying employers 12 for a total of not less than 30 hours per week. 13 ‘‘(3) EDUCATION LOAN.—The term ‘education 14 loan’ means— 15 ‘‘(A) any loan made, insured, or guaran- 16 teed under part B, D, or E of title IV of the 17 Higher Education Act of 1965; 18 ‘‘(B) any loan made under subpart II of 19 part A of this title or part E of title VIII; 20 ‘‘(C) a private education loan, as defined 21 in section 140 of the Truth in Lending Act; or 22 ‘‘(D) any other loan funded, insured, or 23 guaranteed by any Federal agency that is not 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:55 Jun 03, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3737.IS S3737 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 3737 IS the Department of Education and that is issued 1 directly to a student.’’; and 2 (8) in subsection (h), as so redesignated, by 3 striking ‘‘$195,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, and 4 such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal 5 years 2011 through 2015’’ and inserting 6 ‘‘$200,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 7 2025’’. 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 15:55 Jun 03, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3737.IS S3737 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS