Cramer co-sponsors legislation addressing shortage of doctors, nurses

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) last week cosponsored the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, bipartisan legislation to recapture a limited number of unused visas from prior years and allocate them to doctors and nurses who can help in the fight against COVID-19.

“With its rapid economic growth and rural landscape, North Dakota has relied heavily on legal immigrants to provide our communities with access to health care they would not otherwise get,” said Senator Cramer. “The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act gives our immigration system flexibility to recapture unused green cards and grant them to immigrant health care workers without making them endure long wait times caused by arbitrary per-country caps. I thank Senator Perdue for his leadership on this legislation, and I’m pleased to be a part of a growing number of senators who support it. I hope we pass it soon.” 

Senator David Perdue (R-GA) introduced the legislation earlier this month. It now has the support of 21 senators.

“For the last decade, our country has faced a significant shortage of doctors and nurses, and the COVID-19 crisis has put our existing healthcare workforce under tremendous strain. This bill would simply reallocate a limited number of unused visas from prior years for doctors and nurses who are qualified to help in our fight against COVID-19,” said Senator Perdue. “I personally want to thank my colleagues from both sides of the aisle for joining this effort. We all want to act quickly to support our healthcare workers and ensure that we are better prepared to handle a crisis like this going forward.”

The bill will not increase current immigration numbers and will not displace American workers. Learn more here.