Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB632 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 632
5	5	To amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to allow Indian Health
6	6	Service scholarship and loan recipients to fulfill service obligations
7	7	through half-time clinical practice, and for other purposes.
8	8	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
9	9	FEBRUARY19, 2025
10	10	Ms. C
11	11	ORTEZMASTO(for herself and Mr. MULLIN) introduced the following
12	12	bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs
13	13	A BILL
14	14	To amend the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to allow
15	15	Indian Health Service scholarship and loan recipients
16	16	to fulfill service obligations through half-time clinical
17	17	practice, and for other purposes.
18	18	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
19	19	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
20	20	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
21	21	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘IHS Workforce Parity 4
22	22	Act of 2025’’. 5
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25	25	•S 632 IS
26	26	SEC. 2. INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE SCHOLARSHIP AND LOAN 1
27	27	RECIPIENTS. 2
28	28	(a) I
29	29	NDIANHEALTHPROFESSIONS SCHOLAR-3
30	30	SHIPS.—Section 104(b)(3) of the Indian Health Care Im-4
31	31	provement Act (25 U.S.C. 1613a(b)(3)) is amended by 5
32	32	striking the paragraph designation and all that follows 6
33	33	through the end of subparagraph (A) and inserting the 7
34	34	following: 8
35	35	‘‘(3)(A) The active duty service obligation under a 9
36	36	written contract with the Secretary under section 338A 10
37	37	of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254l) that 11
38	38	an individual has entered into under that section shall, 12
39	39	if that individual is a recipient of an Indian Health Schol-13
40	40	arship— 14
41	41	‘‘(i) be met by full-time (as defined in section 15
42	42	331(j) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 16
43	43	254d(j))) practice— 17
44	44	‘‘(I) in the Service; 18
45	45	‘‘(II) in a program conducted under a con-19
46	46	tract entered into under the Indian Self-Deter-20
47	47	mination and Education Assistance Act (25 21
48	48	U.S.C. 5301 et seq.); 22
49	49	‘‘(III) in a program assisted under title V; 23
50	50	or 24
51	51	‘‘(IV) in the private practice of the applica-25
52	52	ble profession if, as determined by the Sec-26
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55	55	•S 632 IS
56	56	retary, in accordance with guidelines issued by 1
57	57	the Secretary, the practice— 2
58	58	‘‘(aa) is situated in a physician or 3
59	59	other health professional shortage area; 4
60	60	and 5
61	61	‘‘(bb) addresses the health care needs 6
62	62	of a substantial number of Indians; or 7
63	63	‘‘(ii) be met by half-time (as defined in section 8
64	64	331(j) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 9
65	65	254d(j))) practice in a program described in any of 10
66	66	subclauses (I) through (IV) of clause (i) if the indi-11
67	67	vidual agrees, in writing— 12
68	68	‘‘(I) to double the period of obligated serv-13
69	69	ice that would otherwise be required if the indi-14
70	70	vidual were satisfying the period of obligated 15
71	71	service through full-time (as so defined) prac-16
72	72	tice; and 17
73	73	‘‘(II) that if the individual fails to begin or 18
74	74	complete the period of obligated service de-19
75	75	scribed in subclause (I), the procedures de-20
76	76	scribed in section 108(l)(2) for determining 21
77	77	damages for breach of contract will be used 22
78	78	after converting that period of obligated service 23
79	79	or service performed into its full-time equiva-24
80	80	lent.’’. 25
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83	83	•S 632 IS
84	84	(b) INDIANHEALTHSERVICELOANREPAYMENT 1
85	85	P
86	86	ROGRAM.—Section 108 of the Indian Health Care Im-2
87	87	provement Act (25 U.S.C. 1616a) is amended— 3
88	88	(1) in subsection (f)(1)(B), by striking clause 4
89	89	(iii) and inserting the following: 5
90	90	‘‘(iii) to serve for a period of time (re-6
91	91	ferred to in this section as the ‘period of 7
92	92	obligated service’) equal to— 8
93	93	‘‘(I) 2 years, or a longer period 9
94	94	of time as the individual may agree to 10
95	95	serve, in the full-time (as defined in 11
96	96	section 331(j) of the Public Health 12
97	97	Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254d(j))) clin-13
98	98	ical practice of the profession of the 14
99	99	individual in an Indian health pro-15
100	100	gram to which the individual may be 16
101	101	assigned by the Secretary; 17
102	102	‘‘(II) 4 years, or a longer period 18
103	103	of time as the individual may agree to 19
104	104	serve, in the half-time (as defined in 20
105	105	that section) clinical practice of the 21
106	106	profession of the individual in an In-22
107	107	dian health program to which the in-23
108	108	dividual may be assigned by the Sec-24
109	109	retary, subject to the condition that if 25
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112	112	•S 632 IS
113	113	the individual has agreed to serve for 1
114	114	a period longer than 2 years of full- 2
115	115	time (as so defined) service, as de-3
116	116	scribed in subclause (I), the half-time 4
117	117	(as so defined) service obligation shall 5
118	118	be the amount of time required for 6
119	119	the individual to complete an equiva-7
120	120	lent amount of service on a half-time 8
121	121	(as so defined) basis; or 9
122	122	‘‘(III) 2 years in the half-time 10
123	123	(as so defined) clinical practice of the 11
124	124	profession of the individual in an In-12
125	125	dian health program to which the in-13
126	126	dividual may be assigned by the Sec-14
127	127	retary with a loan payment amount 15
128	128	equal to 50 percent of the amount 16
129	129	that would otherwise be payable for 17
130	130	full-time (as so defined) service for 18
131	131	that same period of obligated service; 19
132	132	and 20
133	133	‘‘(iv) in the case of an individual com-21
134	134	pleting a period of obligated service 22
135	135	through half-time (as so defined) clinical 23
136	136	practice, that if the individual fails to 24
137	137	begin or complete that period of obligated 25
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140	140	•S 632 IS
141	141	service, the procedures described in sub-1
142	142	section (l)(2) for determining damages for 2
143	143	breach of contract under this section will 3
144	144	be used after converting the period of obli-4
145	145	gated service or service performed into its 5
146	146	full-time (as so defined) equivalent;’’; and 6
147	147	(2) in subsection (l)(2), in the undesignated 7
148	148	matter following subparagraph (D), by inserting the 8
149	149	following before ‘‘Amounts’’: ‘‘Periods of obligated 9
150	150	service completed in half-time (as defined in section 10
151	151	331(j) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 11
152	152	254d(j))) clinical practice shall be converted to their 12
153	153	full-time (as defined in that section) equivalents for 13
154	154	purposes of determining damages for breach of con-14
155	155	tract under this paragraph.’’. 15
156	156	Æ
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