ATLANTA — U.S. Senator for Georgia Jon Ossoff (D) is working on getting federal nurses a tax cut amid a national shortage of staff.
According to a release from the senator’s office, the effort to give tax cuts to members of the Federal Nurse Corps is bipartisan.
The Federal Nurse Corps is a program aimed at providing health care to rural and underserved communities across the United States.
Ossoff’s office said the effort was in the form of legislation called the Nurse Corps Tax Parity Act.
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As proposed, the legislation would let nurses in the program have an exemption to paying federal income taxes on student loan forgiveness and scholarships.
The Federal Nurse Corps provides scholarships and loan repayments for healthcare providers who work in underserved and rural communities, but Ossoff’s office said those offerings are currently taxed as income, federally.
“I want to make it easier and more attractive for health care professionals to come and serve the people of Georgia,” Ossoff said in a statement. “All Georgians deserve world-class health care, which is why I’m working to bring Republicans and Democrats together to lower taxes for nurses who serve Georgia communities.”
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The senator said the Nurse Corps Tax Parity Act is part of a push to address the national nurse shortage, mentioning his move in early August to build a new nursing instructional facility in Mount Vernon to expand Brewton-Parker College’s nursing workforce development program.
Ossoff’s office, citing the Bureau of Health Workforce, said Georgia currently ranks sixth nationwide for nurse shortages, with its rural areas hit hardest.
So far, the legislation has been endorsed by a variety of associations, including the American Nurses Association (ANA), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA), the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), the Association of Public Health Nurses (APHN), the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses (ARN), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Commissioned Officers Association of the USPHS (COA), Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR), and the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS).
“The Nurse Corps program is a critical component of our nation’s health care system. Many Americans, including millions of people living in rural and underserved communities, have benefited from the increased access to high-quality care that the Nurse Corps program enables,” ANA President Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, said. “Removing taxes on scholarships and loans provided by the Nurse Corps would help to bring it in line with other programs that empower health care professionals to practice in high-need areas.”
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