Virginia Association of Colleges of Nursing

Legislative Update: FY 2020 Spending Bill - A Win for Academic Nursing!

  • 1.  Legislative Update: FY 2020 Spending Bill - A Win for Academic Nursing!

    Posted 12-17-2019 06:23
    I received the following update from AACN on the FY 2020 spending bills. Thanks for all your work on Capital Hill and behind the scenes with your legislators. Our work is paying off!

    Good Evening SGL's:

     

    The Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 spending bills (two minibuses-one dealing with national security, and the other with domestic programs) just dropped (see the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education minibus  and division report attached). This represents a bipartisan spending deal that is expected to be signed into law before the week's end and the December 20th deadline, when the current continuing resolution (CR), or short-term spending fix, is set to expire. While we are still combing through the bill, we wanted to share with you some of the breaking news and HUGE winsfor AACN, including:

     

    • $10.5 Million INCREASE ($259.972 million) to Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs! This includes a $5.5 million increase to existing Title VIII programs and an additional $5 million to a new line item – Nurse Practitioner Optional Fellowship Program. In total Title VIII received more than a 4% increase for FY2020.
    • The inclusion of our finessed legislative language to ensure funding for National Health Service Corps (NHSC) comes from "within" NHSC and not from other programs, such as the Nurse Faculty Loan Program!
    • $6.121 Million INCREASE ($169.113 million) for NINR!; and
    • $25 million for Gun Violence Research: This is something AACN has supported in the past and continued to support this fiscal year.

     

    The House is expected to consider the two "minibuses" as early as tomorrow. The Senate is then expected to clear the measure for the President to sign before funding expires at midnight on Friday. Thank you for all of your help and advocacy on funding for these vital programs – it worked! We will keep you updated in Washington Weekly and via Twitter (@AACNPolicy) as these bills advance this week.

     

    Thank you again. We couldn't do it without you!

     

    Warm regards,

    Rachel L. Stevenson, MA
    Director of Government Affairs
    American Association of Colleges of Nursing



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    Cindy Rubenstein PhD
    Director of Nursing and Professor
    Randolph-Macon College
    Ashland VA
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