H.R. 8011 — SECURE Health Act

This section states 19 congressional findings on the importance of strengthening the global health workforce to improve worldwide health outcomes, prevent infectious disease spread, enhance U.S. health and economic security, and address projected shortfalls of at least 11 million health workers by 2030 (particularly in low- and middle-income countries). The findings highlight U.S. reliance on foreign-educated healthcare workers (e.g., one in five active physicians and one in six nurses), global progress from U.S. investments (e.g., 60% reduction in child mortality and 38% reduction in maternal mortality from 1990 to 2020), and challenges including 14,000+ attacks on healthcare since 2020 that killed nearly 2,800 health workers.

This section declares it to be the policy of the United States (1) to pursue the expansion, training, payment, support, equipping, and protection of the frontline global health workforce; (2) to support integrated investments in health workers that reflect their true responsibilities and move away from siloed, single-disease investments; (3) to use global health investments to catalyze the expansion and efficient utilization of frontline health workers and address severe global health workforce shortages; and (4) to require host organization contributions as part of U.S. investments in salary support, along with plans to transition those salaries to domestic financing for sustainability.

This section requires the President to establish and regularly update a five-year Global Health Workforce Strategy that (1) identifies U.S. government spending to support the global health workforce from global health and humanitarian assistance funds and (2) includes measurable goals and implementation plans for such investments. It further directs the head of each federal department and agency using resources for international health and humanitarian assistance to (1) establish policies aligning those resources with the strategy and (2) regularly update such policies.

This section establishes, within the Department of State, the Global Health Workforce Coordinator position, to be appointed by the President. The Coordinator shall (1) coordinate and oversee implementation of this Act and (2) approve strategy and resource allocations across foreign assistance programs supporting the global health workforce.

This section establishes an interagency task force within the National Security Council, co-chaired by the Global Health Workforce Coordinator (appointed under section 5(a)) and a senior director of the National Security Council selected by the President. The task force must (1) coordinate and oversee implementation of this Act and (2) ensure alignment of global health investments across federal departments and agencies.

This section requires the President, in coordination with heads of relevant federal departments and agencies, to publish an annual report detailing federal efforts to train and support frontline health workers across all funding streams. The report must include, at a minimum, (1) a breakdown of funding across all health worker cadres categorized as direct or indirect support and differentiated between single U.S. government source funding for a specific disease or condition and integrated funding approaches covering multiple diseases or conditions; (2) a breakdown of funding supporting health worker training, including pre-service training to address shortages, in-service training for skill development, institutional capacity building and retention measures, and digital capacity and access; and (3) a breakdown of funding supporting health worker salaries and sustained employment, including funds for workforce expansion, salary support with plans to transition to domestic funding sources, and protection measures such as safe work conditions, labor standards, and protections during conflicts, pandemics, or crises.

This section directs the United States to seek to establish and support a biennial, independent global report on the status of the global health workforce, produced outside the donor and United Nations system. The report assesses international and domestic funding, the policy environment, and other support avenues for the global health workforce to track progress, encourage increased funding, and measure the success of global engagement.