Congress funds health workforce training in underserved areas through 2031
S. 4110 — EMPOWER for Health Act · Filed by Jack Reed (D-RI) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Mar 17, 2026 · Reported out
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill reauthorizes and extends federal health workforce training programs under the Public Health Service Act through 2031, allocating approximately $250 million across multiple programs including physician training, nursing workforce development, and pediatric health care. It expands eligibility for pediatric health workforce programs to include underserved populations, strengthens nursing workforce data collection and analysis, and modifies service obligation requirements for health professionals receiving federal support.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is straightforward: reauthorizing and extending existing federal health professions training programs with updated appropriations and modest programmatic expansions focused on underserved pediatric populations and nursing workforce data.
What the text implies
- Expansion of pediatric health workforce programs to 'underserved pediatric populations' may create incentives for health systems to concentrate pediatric services in higher-margin urban markets rather than truly rural areas, depending on implementation.
- Nursing workforce data collection and analysis provisions (Section 761(3)–(5)) establish a new federal infrastructure for nursing labor-market monitoring; this may inform future wage or staffing regulations but could also be used to justify workforce caps or restrictions.
- Service obligation modifications for pediatric fellows (requiring only 50% direct clinical care, with research/teaching time permitted) may reduce the effective clinical workforce supply in underserved areas if fellows choose research-heavy tracks.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill funds workforce development in underserved areas and pediatric care, addressing documented shortages in rural and low-income communities. While the appropriations are modest relative to overall health spending, they directly support training and placement of health professionals in medically underserved populations, including Medicaid-enrolled children, with no apparent private carve-outs or liability shields.
Who stands to gain
- Academic medical centers and teaching hospitals (pediatric fellowship funding)
- Nursing schools and workforce training programs
- Area health education centers
- Health professions schools receiving Title VII grants
Named in the bill
Public Health Service Act Title VII, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Area Health Education Centers (AHEC), Nursing workforce centers, Medicaid program (Title XIX, Social Security Act), Accredited pediatric residency and fellowship programs
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Mar 17, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 17, 2026 — 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
9 lobbying clients named this bill on 10 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $825,825 in lobbying spend. A filing names 21 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 89% of bills with at least one filing.
Jack Reed, the sponsor, reported $1,152,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- College of American Pathologists — $486,008 on 2 filings
- Physician Assistant Education Association — $130,000 on 1 filing
- American Association of Colleges of Nursing — $90,000 on 1 filing
- Association of American Medical Colleges — $33,750 on 1 filing
- National League for Nursing — $29,067 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 (7,622 characters) on Jul 5, 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 Mar 2026 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. 4110 on Congress.gov
- Actions and status history
- Cosponsors (1)
- Bill text the analysis read
- College of American Pathologists — LDA filing, 2026 Q1
- Physician Assistant Education Association — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- American Association of Colleges of Nursing — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- Jack Reed — FEC candidate receipts, 2026 cycle
“Congress funds health workforce training in underserved areas through 2031” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4110 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.