Two Norton Health Care Priorities in One Bill on Their Way to the President (9/25/08)

Washington, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's (D-DC) bill, which adds the District as a designated area where primary health care professionals can serve for two years in exchange for student loan forgiveness, passed this evening and is on its way to the President for signature. Dentists, for whom Norton earlier sought similar benefits in H.R. 2168, the Dedicated Dental Service for HIV/AIDS Act, also will qualify for the same relief.

Norton argued strenuously that D.C. should not have been left out of the original bill in the first place because congressional legislation is always intended for "the 50 states and the District of Columbia." The D.C. Loan Repayment Equity Technical Amendment Act, an amendment to H.R. 1343 was Norton's top health care priority for the city this term. H.R. 1343 is "especially necessary in our city, where professional medical help assistance tends to be downtown and in the most affluent areas, with too few health care professionals located where health care indicators show the greatest needs," Norton said. "The seamless incorporation of my much needed bill to do the same for particularly rare dentists in underserved areas was a real bonus."