Maria Cantwell: “last week I introduced S. 2491, the Allied Health Reinvestment Act, with my colleagues, Senators Bingaman and Lieberman.…”

“last week I introduced S. 2491, the Allied Health Reinvestment Act, with my colleagues, Senators Bingaman and Lieberman. As I mentioned at that time, the Allied Health Reinvestment Act will encourage individuals to seek and complete high quality allied health education and training by providing additional funding for their studies. This funding will help provide the U.S. healthcare industry with a supply of allied health professionals support the nation's health care system in this decade and beyond. The bill has a number of supporters. I would particularly like to express my appreciation to the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions, ASAHP, for its support of the legislation as well as its ongoing efforts to address the need for allied health professionals and allied health faculty. ASAHP, founded in 1967, has a membership that includes 105 institutions of higher learning throughout the United States, as well as several hundred individual members. ASAHP publishes a quarterly journal and also conducts an annual survey of member institutions. This annual survey, called the ``Institutional Profile Survey,'' is used for, among other purposes, collecting student application and enrollment data. These data substantiates that there is a pressing need to address existing allied health workforce shortages, which have been further exacerbated by declines in enrollment that have occurred for 4 straight years.”