Federal loan forgiveness for doctors who commit to rural practice
H.R. 1127 — Rural America Health Corps Act · Filed by David Kustoff (R-TN) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 7, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a new federal loan-repayment program for healthcare professionals who commit to working in rural areas with doctor shortages. Eligible individuals can receive up to $200,000 in payments toward their student loans over a 5-year service commitment in designated rural health professional shortage areas, funded at $50 million per year through 2030.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a targeted federal subsidy (loan repayment) designed to address a documented public-health problem—provider shortages in rural areas. It is a straightforward workforce-development and access program, not a deregulation, tax carve-out, or narrow private giveaway.
What the text implies
- The program explicitly excludes demonstration participants from being counted in future health professional shortage area designations (2026–2030), which may artificially suppress the measured severity of rural shortages and affect future federal funding allocations to those regions.
- The 5-year obligated-service requirement with a 'good faith' breach exception (subsection b(3)(B)) creates ambiguity about enforcement: individuals who leave early may face liquidated damages, but the Secretary has discretion to define the formula, potentially creating inconsistent outcomes.
- The $200,000 cap per individual may not cover full loan balances for advanced-degree holders (MDs, DOs, advanced practice nurses), potentially limiting uptake among the highest-credentialed providers most needed in rural areas.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Rural residents gain improved access to healthcare by incentivizing qualified professionals to work in underserved areas; healthcare professionals benefit from loan forgiveness tied to public-health service. The program directly addresses a documented shortage of providers in rural America.
Who stands to gain
- Healthcare professionals (physicians, nurses, physician assistants, dentists, mental health provider
Named in the bill
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Health Service Corps, Public Health Service Act (Section 338B, Section 332), House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Feb 7, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 7, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $810,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 26 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
David Kustoff, the sponsor, reported $1,066,250 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Federation of American Hospitals — $710,000 on 1 filing
- American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine — $100,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,856 characters) on May 19, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal loan forgiveness for doctors who commit to rural practice” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1127 Report an error
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