Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today in honor of all the nurses, the healers who tirelessly serve patients across our Nation. I thank them for their dedicated service to heal, care for, and serve people across all our communities. Our country is facing a dire shortage of healthcare workers. Whether nurses, primary care physicians, psychiatrists, behavioral health specialists, or technicians, you name it, the growing shortage of workers is exacerbating the already high cost of healthcare, making high-quality care that much harder. Right now, in my own district, thousands of nurses and healthcare workers are on strike at a hospital owned and operated by the Bon Secours Health System, a $3.8 billion not-for-profit based in Maryland that owns or manages more than 20 health-related institutions in seven States. The nurses at St. Vincent hospital are striking on quality of life issues: overtime, mandatory on-call, and, ironically, healthcare for them and their families. The struggle these workers and these patients are facing is on my mind every minute, and I continue to urge a real dialogue from the company. Go back to the table and bargain to get our nurses back on the job peacefully and productively. Meanwhile, I urge my colleagues to reauthorize title VIII of the Nursing Workforce Act and amend the Public Health Service Act to establish direct care registered nurse-to-patient staffing ratio requirements in hospitals.…”