Strengthening the Public Health Workforce Act
This bill reauthorizes through FY2025 and makes changes to the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program (a program that awards student loan repayment to individuals with qualifying degrees who commit to work full-time for a federal, state, tribal, or local public health agency for a period of obligated service).
Changes to the program include increasing the maximum repayment amount; eliminating the option for individuals to complete the service obligation in a federal public health agency; and expanding the scope of qualifying degrees to cover, for example, those in statistics, computer science, and programs related to information technology.
In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services may take actions to equitably distribute awards across geographic regions, among jurisdictional levels, and between urban and rural areas.
The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office to conduct an evaluation of the public health workforce.