Washington, DC, August 26, 2025 — The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the voice of the over 3,300 local health departments across the country, applauds the introduction of a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Public Health and Bio-Preparedness Workforce Loan Repayment Program. This program is a critical federal effort to recruit top talent to work in a local, state, or tribal health department. Currently authorized through fiscal year 2026, the bill would continue to authorize a federal loan repayment program that supports the recruitment and retention of public health professionals in local, state, and tribal health departments. This legislation is critical and a necessary investment for the future of public health.
We are experiencing a challenging time in public health right now, particularly with maintaining a strong and well-supported workforce. With the current decline in public health workforce, this program helps ensure that professionals are in place to continue delivering essential services in their communities and remain in their roles for the long-term. Federal investments in local public health are needed in order to protect the health security of the nation, one community at a time.
On behalf of NACCHO we would like to thank the bipartisan group of policymakers who continue to champion this work. Thank you to Representatives Crow (D-CO), Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Trahan (D-MA), and Fitzpatrick (R-PA) for taking this important first step to ensure this program to help recruit and retain talented professionals to strengthen health department capacity remains law. NACCHO stands ready to work with Congress to advance this important legislation and invest in the public health workforce more broadly.
Since 2021, NACCHO has led a broad coalition of more than 100 public health, healthcare, and labor organizations to support the creation and reauthorization of a public health loan repayment program to help address these workforce pressures by incentivizing recent graduates to bring their talents to health departments across the country. It is a key pillar of NACCHO’s Annual Legislative Agenda.
This achievement represents progress towards a strong workforce and infrastructure. We have more work ahead of us and continuing to advocate for increased and long-term investment is needed to sustain a more responsive and resilient public health system.
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About NACCHO
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the over 3,300 local governmental health departments across the country. These city, county, metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.
