NLN Day on the Hill Bears Fruit

Senate Committee on Appropriations Approves $16 Million Plus Increase for Nursing Workforce Development Programs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 22, 2007 — New York, NY — The Title VIII — Nursing Workforce Development Programs received a boost yesterday evening (June 21) when the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended $169,679,000 for Title VIII — a 13.4 percent increase over FY 2007 — and $4 million more than the corresponding House bill.

Funding for Advanced Education Nursing, which had been slated to be eliminated in the presidents proposed budget for FY 2008, was not only restored but increased to almost $69 million by the committee. The Nursing Faculty Loan Program received an additional $3,227,000 bringing that line item to $8 million. The Loan Repayment and Scholarships program was decreased. A chart with the current numbers is appended below.

Said NLN CEO Dr. Beverly Malone, "It is gratifying to see that attention is being paid to the critical need to reverse the acute shortage of nurses and concomitant shortage of nurse educators so that the nations health care needs may be appropriately addressed."

Added NLN president, Dr. Toni Bargagliotti, "We, in the nursing community, are looking forward to the next steps; the House Appropriations Committee is expected to meet in early July."