{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://harder.house.gov/media/press-releases/news-harder-announces-new-bill-to-reverse-financial-aid-cuts-for-doctors-nurses-and-fix-valley-health-care-shortage", "NEWS: Harder Announces New Bill to Reverse Financial Aid Cuts for Doctors, Nurses and Fix Valley Health Care Shortage", "2025-12-18", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "House", "CA", "Josh Harder", "H001090", "harder.house.gov", "harder", "https://harder.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "San Joaquin County has 16 health professional shortage areas, statewide shortage of over 500,000 health care workers\n\nGrad PLUS program expiring in July, helps 1,700 Valley students attain medical, law degrees\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Today, Rep. Josh Harder (CA-09) announced new legislation to reverse devastating cuts to federal financial assistance that helps local students studying to be doctors and nurses. Harder\u2019s Protecting Health Care Workforce Pipelines Act would protect the Grad PLUS program for students in communities with severe health care workforce shortages like San Joaquin County.\n\nThe Grad PLUS program is critical for fixing the health care worker shortage:\n\nSan Joaquin County alone has 16 health professional shortage areas, and more than 500,000 new health care workers are needed across the state to meet demand by 2030.\n\nGrad PLUS allows graduate and professional students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance and supports more than 1,700 students at the University of the Pacific alone.\n\nCuts to the program could turn nearly half a million students away from medical and professional degrees, hitting communities with existing shortages especially hard.\n\n\u201cWe have a devastating health care practitioner shortage here in the Valley, and the last thing we need is to make it harder to train students wanting to enter the medical field,\u201d said Rep. Harder. \u201cMy bill reverses these devastating cuts to financial aid for local students and instead invests in training the next generation here in our community. Our families desperately need more accessible and affordable health care here in the Valley, and this bill is a key piece of making that a reality.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe loss of Grad PLUS loans poses a grave threat to the creation of a highly qualified workforce in California and across the country\u2014especially in underserved health regions such as the Central Valley,\u201d said University of the Pacific President Christopher Callahan. \u201cWe are indebted to Congressman Harder for fighting to retain this critically important and highly successful student loan program.\u201d\n\nHarder\u2019s Protecting Health Care Workforce Pipelines Act protects future doctors and nurses by delaying Grad PLUS program cuts to 2031 for students in graduate programs at universities in either a health care professional shortage area (HPSA) or a medically underserved area (MUA). Harder is also calling on the Health Resources and Services Administration to develop a plan to ensure continued access to graduate medical programs in HPSAs and MUAs.\n\n###", 1, "2026-06-27T20:01:11Z", "2026-06-27T22:31:39Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://harder.house.gov/media/press-releases/news-harder-announces-new-bill-to-reverse-financial-aid-cuts-for-doctors-nurses-and-fix-valley-health-care-shortage"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1017780527472496, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}