The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“INTRODUCTION OF THE HEALTH IMPROVEMENT AND PROFESSIONALS ACT OF 2005” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E24 on Jan. 4, 2005.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INTRODUCTION OF THE HEALTH IMPROVEMENT AND PROFESSIONALS ACT OF 2005
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HON. TOM LANTOS
of california
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, it is well documented that many states, including my home state of California, are currently suffering from a nursing shortage that, if left unchecked, will quickly reach epidemic proportions. More than 126,000 nursing positions in hospitals around the country are unfilled, according to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. In addition, the workforce is shrinking, because it's aging (and retiring) at twice the rate of other occupations. While the problem of nursing shortages will require a multifaceted solution, I was shocked to learn recently that entry into the United States by many qualified nurses was being delayed entry because of an easily correctable bureaucratic regulation. We cannot simply stand by and allow the nursing shortage to ensnarl the quality of American health care, and that is why I am introducing the Health Improvement and Professionals Act (HIPA) of 2005.
Due to a change in procedures by the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) of the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency responsible for processing citizenship and immigration applications, it became necessary to impose a cut-off date in order to process a backlog of work-related immigration applications. As a result, CIS recently announced that it would no longer consider employment-based visa applications from the Philippines, India or China that were filed after January 1, 2002. Due to the unfortunate shortage of American nurses, many of our nation's hospitals are dependent on filling their nursing ranks with new workers from these countries. My legislation, the Health Improvement and Professionals Act of 2005, would provide a common-sense, short-term solution to the problems caused by the CIS policy change, while still allowing the agency to do the necessary and important work of processing its backlog.
Mr. Speaker, my legislation simply allows CIS to recapture unused work-based immigration quota numbers from countries that have undersubscribed their own allowable visa numbers. By reassigning unused quota allotments from previous years, we would allow more qualified nurses to come to this country, bringing their crucially needed skills with them. Let me be clear, the HIPA Act of 2005 does not increase the number of immigrants allowed into our country. Instead, my legislation ensures that we are putting to full use the number of workers' visas currently allowed by law, in order to fulfill a crucial and exponentially increasing worker shortage.
The HIPA Act is modeled directly on the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act, which Congress passed, and President Clinton signed into law nearly five years ago, in response to the shortage of highly skilled computer programmers and information technology workers needed to fuel the Internet boom of the late 1990's. Like the HIPA Act of 2005, that law allowed for the recapture of unused employment-based visas to fill a necessary labor shortage.
The growth of the nursing shortage is easily traceable--one only has to look to the fact that in 2002, 30 states were reportedly experiencing some level of nursing shortages. This number is expected to rise to 45 states by 2012. The scope of this problem is compounded by the fact that many of today's nurses are nearing retirement, and so our country is facing the compounded problem of increased retirements coupled with increased demand. This problem is well known to the federal government, as the Department of Labor has noted that one million new nurses will be needed by 2012 to meet the growing health needs of our country.
Some may criticize my legislation for bringing nurses into the country instead of training American men and women to do the job. Unfortunately, enrollments in baccalaureate nursing programs at colleges and universities across the United States have declined for five consecutive years. Even in states where the programs are full, as in my state of California, nearly 70% of all nurses are trained by community colleges. Many of the programs at these schools in California are full, and some even have substantial waiting lists of eager students ready to learn about the exciting and rewarding profession of nursing. I will continue to work to expand the capacity of nurse training programs in our country to help relieve this shortage. However, the shortage in California is so severe that even if all of the nursing programs in the state were to double their enrollments, California would still not be able to meet her nursing needs in the year 2010.
Mr. Speaker, the lack of nurses in our hospitals has a direct effect on the quality of the health care these facilities can provide. The shortages currently experienced in 30 states affects all patients, from those in operating rooms and intensive care units to those who treat children and cancer patients. In fact, according to a study conducted by the Harvard School of Health and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, over 50% of physicians surveyed believed that the nursing shortage is a leading cause of medical error. Additional studies and surveys published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations all confirm that the shortage of RNs is influencing the delivery of health care in the United States and negatively affecting patient outcomes. It is completely unacceptable in 21st century America that these preventable deaths are occurring. I hope my colleagues are as appalled about this as I am and that they will join me in supporting this common sense and critically important legislation. While we search for a longer-term solution to the problems as well as the causes of this nursing shortage crisis, the Health Improvement and Professionals Act of 2005 will provide a desperately needed injection of health care professionals into this country.
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