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S. 1874119th CongressHealth
Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2026
Sponsored by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) · 17 active : 4 Republicans, 13 Democrats
Latest action: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 527.
Where it standsBefore the Senate5 senators score as swing votes
Hasn’t passed either chamber
- Senate: next
- House: not yet
- President: not yet
Summary
, via Congress.govTitle VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2026
This bill reauthorizes through FY2031, revises, and establishes programs that support recruitment, education, retention, and advanced practices of nurses and nursing school faculty.
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Specifically, the bill reauthorizes programs within the Health Resources and Services Administration that provide grants to support increased enrollment in nursing education (including for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds), advanced nursing education and specialized training, nurse retention, and enhanced patient care. The bill also reauthorizes programs that support student loan repayment and scholarships for nurses who agree to work at facilities with critical nursing shortages and nursing faculty who work at accredited schools of nursing.
Also, the bill expands certain grants to include (1) training on the use of new technologies such as telehealth and virtual resources, and (2) care for survivors of sexual assault.
Additionally, the bill temporarily establishes (1) grants to nursing schools for supplementing the salaries of eligible faculty for a period of up to three years to enhance faculty recruitment and retention, and (2) grants to state agencies, nonprofits, and nursing schools for establishing nursing workforce centers and collecting data regarding the nursing workforce.
Committees and subjects
Committees
- Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · SenateReported by · Markup by · Referred to
Subjects
- Employment and training programs
- Health personnel
- Health programs administration and funding
- Medical education
- Nursing
How the Senate breaks down
- 5Swing 70–100
- 53Middle 30–70
- 42Entrenched 0–30
Members fall into . All 100 senators have enough data to score.
Key players in the Senate
Ranked by swing score, 0–100 · swing-v2, directional: only movement toward the other party counts, so members who sit further from the center than their party no longer score as swing votes.
Bars show each input from 0 to 100: ideology gap, scorecard gap, . is the seat’s partisan lean, and shows how much of the input data a score has.
Similar past votes, Senate
Earlier behind swing-v3’s inputLoading similar votes
Cosponsors
17 activeShow all 17 cosponsors
- Adam B. Schiff (D-CA)
- Christopher A. Coons (D-DE)
- Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
- Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
- Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
- Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
- Susan M. Collins (R-ME)
- Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
- Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
- Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE)
- Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)
- Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
- Jon Ossoff (D-GA)
- Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
- Gary C. Peters (D-MI)
- Angela D. Alsobrooks (D-MD)
How the swing score works
Ideology gapHow far a member’s DW-NOMINATE voting score sits from their party’s median in the same chamber.
Scorecard gapHow far their Heritage Action and LCV ratings stray from their party’s average, using the groups’ votes on similar bills where available.
Cross-pressureHow strongly their district or state leans toward the other party, from our own computed partisan lean.
Similar votesHow often they voted against their own party on earlier roll calls about this bill or similar ones.
Committee bonusMembers of the committees handling the bill decide whether it moves, so they get a boost.
Cosponsor checkThe sponsor and active cosponsors have already committed, so they drop toward entrenched.
