MusilloUnkenholt is pleased to report that theHealthcare Workforce Resilience Act will be introduced into Congress nextweek. The HWRA is smart, positivelegislation that will increase the supply of nurses and doctors into theUS. These two occupations are among theshortest supplied occupations by US workers. Musillo Unkenholt and the AAIHR havebeen working closely with these offices for the last two months, assisting congressionalstaffers draft this legislation.
Ifthe HWRA becomes law, all nurses and doctors whose visa applications arecurrently retrogressed immediately become current. Likewise, any nurse or doctor whose I-140 isfiled anytime before 90 days after PresidentTrump’s Emergency Declaration on COVID-19 is also expected to have aretrogression-free visa, although there is an overall quota of 25,000 visas forRNs and 15,000 visas for MDs. Thelegislation contains language asking the USCIS and Embassies and Consulates toexpedite these petitions. The HWRAadmirably contains US worker protections, guaranteeing that no US worker isdisplaced.
TheHWRA has a strong set of original co-sponsors in the Senate: Sens. Perdue(R-GA), Young (R-IN), Durbin (D-IL), and Coons (D-DE). This is an impressive bipartisan set ofSenators with decades of experience leading legislative initiatives.
Insum, the HWRA, with respect to nurses, does the following:
-Allowsall fully-qualified foreign-educated nurses to have their visas granted, ifthey are currently in the retrogression queue or file their I-140s within ninetydays of the President’s Emergency Declaration; and
-Instructs DHS andDOS to prioritize these visa appointments so that these fully-qualified nursescan enter the US as fast as their visa appointments can be scheduled.