Federal money helps low-income people train for health jobs.
S. 5296 — Pathways to Health Careers Act · Filed by Martin Heinrich (D-NM) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Aug 6, 2026 · Referred to committee
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
The bill gives $435 million per year from 2027 to 2031. The money helps low-income people train for health careers. Groups like workforce boards, nonprofits, and hospitals get grants. They teach people to become nurses and emergency medical workers. Participants get money for tuition, childcare, transportation, and cash payments. The program has two test tracks. One track serves people with arrest or jail records. The other serves birth workers like doulas and midwives.
Who it affects
Low-income people who want health jobs get free or cheap training. They also get help with living costs. People with arrest or jail records get a special path into health work. Nonprofits, hospitals, schools, and tribal groups run the training programs.
One thing to notice
At least 10 percent of people in some states must meet income rules for a different federal program. States must have rules that recognize skills for people with jail records. Without such rules, they cannot join that track.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 7 Democrats.
- Aug 6, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 6, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- arrest or jail records — A history of being arrested or convicted of a crime.
- doulas and midwives — People who help women during birth and pregnancy.
- cash payments — Money given to people to help pay for living costs.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (30,648 characters) on Aug 13, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
“Federal money helps low-income people train for health jobs.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5296/simple Report an error