NLN Day on the Hill Bears Fruit

Senate committee on appropriations approves $16 million plus increase for nursing workforce development programs.

New York, NY (PRWEB) June 24, 2007 -- 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 president's 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 attached.

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 nation's 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."

Editors and reporters: For interview opportunities please contact NLN chief communications officer Karen R. Klestzick at 212-812-0376.

Dedicated to excellence in nursing and the voice for nursing education, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education offering faculty development, networking opportunities, testing and assessment, nursing research grants, and public policy initiatives to its 22,000 individual and 1,100 institutional members.

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