Two Bills Reintroduced to Address Critical Healthcare Workforce Shortages

Nov 13, 2023

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer will reintroduce two pieces of bipartisan legislation to address critical healthcare workforce shortages.

The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, led by Senator Cramer and U.S. Senator Dick Durban, makes a limited number of green cards available to qualified immigrant doctors and nurses. The bill allows the "recapture" of green cards already authorized by Congress but unused in previous years, allotting up to 25,000 immigrant visas for nurses and up to 15,000 immigrant visas for physicians.

The Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act, which will be reintroduced by Senator Cramer and U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, allows American employers to focus on hiring immigrants based on their merit, not their birthplace. This legislation would phase out the 7% per-country limit on employment-based immigrant visas and raises the 7% per-country limit on family-sponsored visas to 15%.

Source: Senator Kevin Cramer's Office