Musillo
Unkenholt is pleased to report that the Healthcare
Workforce Resilience Act has been reintroduced into Congress. The HWRA is smart, positive legislation that
will increase the supply of nurses and doctors into the US. These two occupations are among the shortest
supplied occupations by US workers. Musillo Unkenholt and the AAIHR have been working closely with these
offices for the last two months, assisting congressional staffers draft this
legislation.
If the HWRA becomes law, all
nurses and doctors whose visa applications are currently retrogressed
immediately become current. Likewise,
any nurse or doctor whose I-140 is filed before 90 days after the expiration of
the President’s
Emergency Declaration on COVID-19 is also expected to have a
retrogression-free visa, although there is an overall quota of 25,000 visas for
RNs and 15,000 visas for MDs. The legislation contains language asking the
USCIS and Embassies and Consulates to expedite these petitions. The HWRA admirably contains US worker
protections, guaranteeing that no US worker is displaced.
The HWRA has a strong set of
original co-sponsors in the Senate: Sens. Durbin, Coons, Lehay (Ds) and Cornyn,
Young, Collins (Rs). This is an impressive bipartisan set of Senators with
decades of experience leading legislative initiatives. Companion legislation will be introduced into
the House by U.S. Representatives Brad Schneider (D-IL-10), Tom Cole (R-OK-04),
Tom O'Halleran (D-AZ-01), and Don Bacon (R-NE-02).
Specifically, the Healthcare
Workforce Resilience Act:
* Recaptures unused visas from
previous fiscal years for doctors, nurses, and their families
* Exempts these visas from country
caps
* Requires employers to attest
that immigrants from overseas who receive these visas will not displace an
American worker
* Requires the Department of
Homeland Security and State Department to expedite the processing of recaptured
visas
* Limits the filing period for
recaptured visas to 90 days following the termination of the President’s
COVID-19 emergency declaration