The bill adds a new Part G to Title VII of the Public Health Service Act to create a 2‑year pilot program that funds State or regional nursing workforce centers. It authorizes HRSA to award two‑year grants to eligible entities—State agencies, boards of nursing, nursing schools, nonprofits, and community organizations—to collect and analyze nursing workforce data, coordinate planning among educators and employers, and run programs to recruit, educate, and retain nurses.
The pilot includes a $1:$4 non‑Federal matching requirement, geographic distribution and priority criteria, specific allowable activities (from faculty support to pandemic preparedness), annual reporting to Congress, and a modest appropriation ceiling of up to $1.5 million per year for fiscal 2026 and 2027. The bill also expands existing HRSA workforce analysis authority (section 761) to supply technical assistance, create a public repository of resources, and produce national and regional analyses to support the centers.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill authorizes a 2‑year HRSA pilot to create or strengthen State nursing workforce centers through competitive grants, requires recipients to match federal funds at $1 non‑Federal to $4 Federal, and specifies allowed activities from data analysis to workforce training and retention programs.
Who It Affects
Eligible applicants include State agencies, boards of nursing, 2‑ and 4‑year nursing schools, nonprofit and community organizations; downstream effects touch nursing educators, faculty, employers (hospitals, long‑term care, public health), and nurses in rural and underserved areas.
Why It Matters
It attempts to create standardized, State‑level nursing workforce data and an analytical backbone for policy responses—something that providers, payers, and education institutions use to plan staffing and clinical placement capacity—while testing public‑private collaboration models on a limited federal budget.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The Act inserts a new Part G into Title VII to stand up State and regional nursing workforce centers through a two‑year HRSA pilot. Grants are competitive, limited to two years, and intended either to create new centers or to bolster existing ones.
The centers are meant to compile and standardize State‑level supply, demand, and education/training capacity data so policymakers and employers can make informed staffing and education decisions.
The statute names who can apply—State agencies, boards of nursing, schools of nursing, 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and community organizations—and sets a matching condition that requires grantees to supply at least $1 of non‑Federal resources for every $4 of Federal funds. The bill requires HRSA to try to spread grants geographically and to prioritize applicants that can operate statewide, convene stakeholders, and already have nursing workforce expertise and partnerships with training programs and employers.Grant dollars may be spent on analytic work (identifying data gaps and analyzing faculty capacity, enrollment, clinical placement limits, financial aid, and retention drivers), strategic workforce planning across employers and educators, research on contract nursing and shortage trends, and programmatic work—faculty recruitment and retention, leadership development, SDOH training, public health/pandemic preparedness, and career counseling and mentoring.
Recipients must report results; HRSA must submit an initial report within a year of the first award and then annually, with specified data elements and recommendations for addressing specialty and geographic shortages.Separately, the bill amends the existing State and Regional Centers for Health Workforce Analysis authority (section 761) to require at least one awardee with nursing workforce expertise, to produce regional and national reports and peer‑review outputs, and to provide technical assistance — including online trainings and a publicly accessible website and resource repository — to support the State centers. Funding for the pilot is limited: HRSA may use up to $1.5 million in each of fiscal years 2026 and 2027 for this purpose.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The pilot grants run for 2 years and are explicitly designed to create or enhance State‑level nursing workforce centers.
Grantees must provide non‑Federal matching funds equal to at least $1 for each $4 of Federal grant money (25% non‑Federal share).
HRSA may spend up to $1,500,000 in each of fiscal years 2026 and 2027 to run the pilot and support center activities.
Grant activities include standardized data collection and analysis (supply, demand, education capacity), strategic workforce planning with employers, research on contract nursing, and programs for faculty and nurse retention and training.
Section 761 is expanded to fund a national analysis/technical assistance center that must produce regional and national reports, provide trainings, and maintain a public repository of tools and resources for the nursing workforce centers.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Names the Act the “National Nursing Workforce Center Act of 2025.” This is boilerplate but signals the bill’s focused policy objective: standing up a coordinated nursing workforce infrastructure rather than broad health workforce reform.
Establishes a 2‑year State nursing workforce center pilot (section 785(a))
Authorizes the Secretary to run a two‑year pilot to create or enhance State nursing workforce centers and requires HRSA to begin implementation within one year of enactment. Practically, the pilot is a scoped experiment — small in time and budget — intended to test data collection, center operations, and public‑private partnership feasibility before any wider federal rollout.
Grant length, 25% non‑Federal match, and who can apply
Grants are two years. The matching rule obligates grantees to assemble non‑Federal support equal to at least $1 per $4 of Federal funds, which can be cash or in‑kind and can come from public or private donors. Eligible applicants include State agencies and boards, schools of nursing, 501(c)(3) organizations, and community groups; HRSA must seek geographic equity and may give priority to entities offering statewide reach, convening experience, and existing partnerships with nursing educators and employers.
What centers may do and what HRSA must report to Congress
Funds may be used for data gap analysis (faculty capacity, enrollment, clinical placements, financial aid), statewide strategic planning with employers and educators, research on trends like contract nursing, and programs to support faculty, retain nurses, develop leadership, address SDOH competencies, and prepare for public‑health emergencies. HRSA must report to Congress within one year after the first grant and annually thereafter with impact data (including demographics, counts, service types), evaluation metrics, and recommendations for addressing specialty, geographic, and employer‑type shortages.
Expands section 761 to provide national analysis and technical assistance
Amends the State and Regional Centers for Health Workforce Analysis authority to explicitly include nursing workforce functions: at least one awardee with nursing expertise, the production of regional and national reports and peer‑review outputs, rapid analyses, and provision of technical assistance. The technical assistance list includes standardized data tools, training for center staff, and a publicly accessible website and repository of webinars, tools, and resources to support grantees.
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Explore Healthcare in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- State nursing workforce centers and coordinating entities — receive federal seed funding, analytic tools, and technical assistance to build a statewide evidence base and convene employers and educators for planning.
- Nursing schools and faculty — gain funding pathways and programs intended to support faculty recruitment/retention, expand clinical placement capacity analysis, and inform adjustments to enrollment and curricula based on standardized State data.
- Nurses, especially in rural and underserved areas — stand to benefit indirectly from targeted recruitment, retention, leadership development programs, and workforce distribution recommendations that could increase staffing and training opportunities.
Who Bears the Cost
- Grant applicants and recipients — must secure a 25% non‑Federal match (cash or in‑kind), which can be a high hurdle for resource‑limited States, community organizations, or small nursing programs.
- Hospitals and other employers — may face data‑sharing, convening, or in‑kind contribution requests and could be asked to participate in planning or fund matching commitments.
- HRSA and the technical assistance center — must absorb administrative overhead and develop/reoperate the public repository and training infrastructure within the modest appropriations ceiling, potentially stretching existing workforce program resources.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between building a centralized, standardized evidence base fast enough to inform workforce decisions and the bill’s modest, time‑limited resources — requiring States and partners to shoulder significant matching and operational burdens that could limit participation in the places that need help most.
The bill attempts to knit together State‑level planning and a national analytic backbone on a pilot basis, but its funding and timeframe are tight. The $1.5 million cap per fiscal year for two years is modest relative to the administrative, analytic, and programmatic work the statute envisions; applicants should expect that grants will seed activities rather than fully fund sustained center operations.
That raises questions about sustainability after the two‑year grant term unless States or private partners step up to continue funding.
The 25% non‑Federal match improves local buy‑in but may exclude the very States and community organizations that most need help—rural, low‑resource States may struggle to aggregate matching dollars or in‑kind contributions at scale. Standardizing supply, demand, and education/training data across States presents technical and legal challenges: data definitions differ, licensing and privacy rules vary, and clinical placement data are often held by disparate hospitals and systems.
The statute requires reporting and recommends best practices, but it leaves open how HRSA will reconcile differing data sources or enforce standardization. Finally, the push for public‑private partnerships and a public repository raises governance questions — who controls data access, how employer contributions influence priorities, and how conflicts of interest will be managed are not addressed in the bill.
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