Restore Nursing Home Staffing Standards to Prevent Resident Deaths

The Trump administration's rescission of the nursing home staffing rule will have devastating consequences for our most vulnerable residents. According to University of Pennsylvania studies, rolling back implementation of this final staffing rule could result in the loss of 13,000 residents' lives each year and will increase adverse health outcomes across facilities nationwide. The Biden-era rule established minimum standards of 3.48 hours per resident day, including at least 0.55 hours of direct registered nurse care and 2.45 hours of direct nurse aide care. These requirements were based on evidence showing that adequate staffing prevents residents from waiting hours for basic care. Skilled nursing facility residents are fragile and require constant attention from trained professionals. Without these standards, we return to a status quo where residents suffer and die due to inadequate staffing. Claims that this rule would harm rural facilities are not supported by evidence. The original rule included numerous exceptions for facilities facing legitimate hiring challenges, and CMS provided rural facilities with additional compliance time beyond the 2 to 3 years given to other facilities. The real issue is not workforce availability but rather poor treatment and retention of workers by nursing homes themselves. Secretary Kennedy and Administrator Oz offer no alternative plan to address the staffing crisis. Removing federal standards without providing solutions abandons nursing home residents to preventable harm. If workforce shortages are genuinely the concern, Congress must address the root cause by making training for these positions inexpensive or free and available to all workers. I urge you to take legislative action requiring HHS to restore and enforce the nursing home staffing rule. Additionally, Congress should empower and fund the Department of Education to provide expanded grants to students pursuing careers in nursing and healthcare support roles. These measures will save lives while building the workforce our aging population desperately needs.