US Congress Senate Bill 426 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Sponsorship: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-1)
Status: Introduced on February 16 2017 - 25% progression, died in chamber
Action: 2017-07-11 - Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 115-320.
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [PDF]

Grow Our Own Directive: Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017 This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out a five-year Grow Our Own Directive (or G.O.O.D.) pilot program to provide educational assistance to certain former members of the Armed Forces for education and training as VA physician assistants in exchange for recipients agreeing to be employed as physician assistants for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for a specified period at a VA medical facility located in a community designated as a medically underserved population in a state with a per capita population of veterans of more than 9%. The VA shall: (1) provide at least 35 new scholarships under the pilot program each year, and (2) ensure that at least 25 new scholarships are awarded each year under its health professional and employee incentive scholarship programs for the education and training of physician assistants. The VA must: (1) establish specified standards to improve its use of educational assistance programs to educate and hire physician assistants, and (2) increase for each of the next five years the scholarship amounts provided under such programs. The bill establishes pay grades and competitive pay requirements for physician assistants. The VA must implement a national strategic plan for the retention and recruitment of VA physician assistants that includes competitive pay in comparison to the pay of physician assistants in the private sector.

Grow Our Own Directive: Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017

Sen. Jon Tester [D-MT]	Sen. Tammy Baldwin [D-WI]	Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-OH]	Sen. Brian Schatz [D-HI]
Sen. Jerry Moran [R-KS]	Sen. Margaret Hassan [D-NH]

Date	Chamber	Action
2017-07-11	Senate	Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 115-320.
2017-02-16	Senate	Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

HB3262 (Related) 2017-07-31 - Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Type	Source
Summary	https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/426/all-info
Text	https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/s426/BILLS-115s426is.pdf