Congress funds nursing shortage fix: $184M for faculty, education, workforce data
S. 1874 — Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2026 · Filed by Jeff Merkley (D-OR) · 17 cosponsors · Introduced May 22, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill reauthorizes and expands federal nursing workforce development programs under Title VIII of the Public Health Service Act. It increases funding for advanced nursing education grants, adds a new $15 million nurse faculty salary-supplement program to help schools of nursing recruit and retain faculty, establishes a 3-year pilot program for state and regional nursing workforce data centers, and raises overall authorization levels from $137.8 million to $184.3 million annually through 2031.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is straightforward: it reauthorizes and expands existing federal nursing education and workforce programs through increased funding and new grant mechanisms. The title accurately describes the substance.
What the text implies
- The nurse faculty salary-supplement program (up to $15M over 5 years) may create dependency on federal funding; schools must demonstrate sustainability plans but the bill does not guarantee continued funding after 2031.
- The 3-year pilot for nursing workforce data centers requires a 4:1 matching ratio from non-federal sources, which may limit participation by under-resourced schools or rural institutions despite geographic distribution requirements.
- Expansion of eligible programs (nurse practitioners, midwives, anesthesia specialists, clinical nurse specialists) may shift educational resources toward advanced practice roles, potentially affecting the supply of bedside registered nurses if schools reallocate capacity.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill directly addresses a documented nursing shortage by funding faculty recruitment and retention, expanding educational capacity, and improving workforce data collection. These investments increase the supply of nurses available to provide patient care, potentially improving access to nursing services and healthcare quality for the general public.
Who stands to gain
- accredited schools of nursing
- nursing faculty members (salary supplements)
- state and regional nursing workforce centers
Named in the bill
Public Health Service Act, Title VIII nursing programs, schools of nursing, nursing faculty, nurse practitioners, nurse-midwives, nurse anesthetists, clinical nurse specialists, State boards of nursing, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, House Committee on Energy and Commerce — and 1 more
Where it stands
17 cosponsors: 13 Democrats, 4 Republicans.
- May 22, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 22, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
- Jul 22, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
16 lobbying clients named this bill on 24 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $7,002,967 in lobbying spend. A filing names 20 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 95% of bills with at least one filing.
Jeff Merkley, the sponsor, reported $514,925 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Hospital Association — $4,470,000 on 1 filing
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners — $950,000 on 2 filings
- American Association of Nurse Anesthetists — $275,000 on 1 filing
- American Nurses Association — $270,000 on 1 filing
- National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. — $160,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 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 (16,485 characters) on May 21, 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 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
- S. 1874 on Congress.gov
- Actions and status history
- Cosponsors (17)
- Bill text the analysis read
- American Hospital Association — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- American Association of Nurse Practitioners — LDA filing, 2025 Q4
- American Association of Nurse Anesthetists — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- Jeff Merkley — FEC candidate receipts, 2026 cycle
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