| About
AACN Government Affairs
Click
here to access the Government
Affairs Committee membership list
Click
here to access the State
Grassroots Liaison Program contacts
Program
authorizations
AACN works to create or to renew (authorize or reauthorize) federal programs that
support nursing education institutions and students, nursing practice, and Medicare
support of advanced practice nursing education. Programs are typically authorized
for a number of years, usually 3 to 5, and are legislative issues only in the
year of their scheduled reauthorization. The congressional committees that authorize
determine exactly what types of programs will be supported. Legislation creating
programs contains spending ceilings called authorization levels. But no money
can be spent until funds are appropriated by an Appropriations Committee. Program
Appropriations
AACN works to obtain adequate federal financial support (appropriations) for most
of the following programs: nursing education institutions and students and nursing
research. Medicare and some student loan programs are entitlements funded without
an appropriation automatically from federal revenues, all of the other programs
require a congressional appropriations committee to consider, Congress to pass,
and the President to sign an appropriation (funding level for a particular fiscal
year) on an annual basis. The appropriations process typically begins with the
submission of the President's budget for the next fiscal year in January or February,
congressional budget activity, hearings being held by appropriations committees,
passage by both houses of Congress, and a presidential signature before the fiscal
year begins. The federal fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. Technically,
if a program is not authorized it cannot receive an appropriation. If a program
is scheduled for reauthorization, past congressional practice has allowed an appropriation
that permits the program to continue to function based on the language of the
expiring statute. Entitlements
AACN works to protect and extend nursing student and practice interests in programs
that are automatically funded (no annual appropriations required) by the federal
government such as student loans and Medicare. For example, Federal Family Education
Loans under the Higher Education Act provide subsidized and unsubsidized loans
for undergraduate and graduate nursing education.
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