Speech #1100110154

And so here we are again. 2 years later. with hospitals desperate for more nurses. My second degree amendment is a reasonable compromise that will help both the hospitals in the short term and the domestic nursing supply in the long term. My amendment would require employers who successfully petition for a recaptured nursing green card to pay a $1.500 fee. This fee would be used to fund a grant program that would provide grants to U.S. nursing schools for hiring nurse faculty. expanding training capacity. and recruiting more students. $1.500 is not a large feehospitals often spend many times that amount for the services of foreign nurse recruiting companies. However. under my amendment. hospitals that are in dire financial straits. like Health Professional Shortage Area facilities and Louisiana hospitals still recovering from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. would receive a waiver from paying this fee. Neither does my amendment also impose the fee on the dependents of any nurses who receive a recaptured green card. Again. the Durbin 2nd degree amendment is a reasonable compromise that will help both the hospitals in the short term and the domestic nursing supply in the long term. It will allow for the additional nursing green cards to address immediate needs. but it will also take steps that will put the American nursing profession on a path to sustainability. My amendment also contains two measured steps to enhance global healthcare cooperation and to safeguard against a crippling brain drain of foreign healthcare workers from countries where they are critically needed. The first provision would allow a healthcare worker who is a legal permanent resident in the U.S. to temporarily provide healthcare services in a country that is underdeveloped or that has suffered a disaster or public health emergencylike the 2004 tsunamiwithout jeopardizing his or her immigration status in the U.S. The second provision would require a foreigner who is petitioning to work in the U.S. as a health care worker to attest that he or she has satisfied any outstanding commitment to his or her home country under which the foreigner received money for medical training in return for a commitment to work in that country for a period of years. The goal of this second provision is to ensure that foreign countries do not invest money in healthcare workers who then renege on commitments to work in their country without satisfying their commitment in some way. such as by a new voluntary agreement.