# 119-hr-5444: Medical Laboratory Personnel Shortage Relief Act of 2025

119-hr-5444, Medical Laboratory Personnel Shortage Relief Act of 2025, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Ross, Deborah K. [D-NC-2] (D-NC); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-07-25).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-5444
- As of: 2026-07-25
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-5444
- Congress: 119
- Title: Medical Laboratory Personnel Shortage Relief Act of 2025
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2025-09-17
- Sponsor: Rep. Ross, Deborah K. [D-NC-2] (D-NC)
- Cosponsors: 2
- Policy area: Health
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-07-25

## Summary

**Expands the National Health Service Corps to include medical laboratory personnel and services.** This bill would add lab workers to NHSC definitions and loan repayment eligibility, create a new grant program for medical laboratory education, and authorize $25.0 million for the first full fiscal year. - Medical laboratory workers, including phlebotomists, histotechnologists, laboratory technicians, laboratory scientists, medical laboratory assistants, and genetic counselors, would become eligible for NHSC assignments and loan repayment. - Schools, nonprofit hospitals, and accredited internship sponsors could receive 3-year grants to develop accredited lab education programs and train faculty. The bill authorizes $25.0 million for the first full fiscal year. - The Secretary of Health and Human Services would identify medical laboratory health professional target areas and assign NHSC lab personnel to those shortage areas to strengthen lab services. *Would increase federal spending by authorizing $25.0 million for the first full fiscal year and additional unspecified amounts thereafter.*

## Cosponsors (2)

- Rep. Kiggans, Jennifer A. [R-VA-2] (R-VA), 2025-09-17T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Dingell, Debbie [D-MI-6] (D-MI), 2025-11-12T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Loan repayment for lab workers: benefit, high. If enacted, the bill would add medical laboratory personnel to the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) loan repayment program. A degree in medical laboratory science would be an explicit eligibility path. The bill would replace the existing eligibility text with a three-part structure for qualifyi…
- Who counts as lab personnel: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would add a statutory definition of "medical laboratory personnel." The definition would include people training in accredited medical laboratory programs and those who examine human samples for diagnosis. It would list jobs like phlebotomists, lab assistants, histotechnologist…
- More lab workers in target areas: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would require the Secretary to identify medical laboratory health professional target areas. The NHSC would assign Corps members who are medical laboratory personnel to those areas. The bill would apply several existing assignment rules used for maternity care to these lab targ…

## Related bills

- 119-hr-3816: Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025
- 119-hr-7977: Energy Bills Relief Act
- 119-hr-4669: FEMA Act of 2025
- 119-hr-3151: SHIPS for America Act of 2025
- 119-hr-9237: Take Care of America’s Veterans Act
- 119-hr-2725: Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2025

## Sources
- [119-hr-5444 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5444)

## Related
- [119-hr-3816: Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3816)
- [119-hr-7977: Energy Bills Relief Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-7977)
- [119-hr-4669: FEMA Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-4669)
- [119-hr-3151: SHIPS for America Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3151)
- [119-hr-9237: Take Care of America’s Veterans Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-9237)
- [119-hr-2725: Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-2725)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-5444 (as of 2026-07-25).