Brown, Portman Bipartisan Bill That Would Increase Support for Ohio Children’s Hospitals Clears Senate Health Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, a bipartisan bill authored by U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) that would reauthorize the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program for an additional five years and increase its authorization to $330 million per year passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. As a part of the bipartisan omnibus spending deal reached in Congress last month, Brown and Portman helped secure the highest-ever funding levels for the CHGME program at $315 million. This newest bill would increase the program’s authorization by an additional $15 million.

This vital program supports Ohio Children’s hospitals and helps train the next generation of pediatricians by providing children’s teaching hospitals with the federal support they need to train new physicians.

“Caring for our nation’s children demands specialized pediatric training,” said Brown. “This legislation would reauthorize and further boost funding for our children’s hospitals to make sure they have the resources they need to give all Ohio children a healthy start in life.”

“The Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education program is critical to sustaining the nation’s pediatric physician workforce.  This legislation will ensure that hospitals can continue to train future pediatricians to care for children in Ohio and across the country,” said Portman.

Brown and Portman led prior efforts to include CHGME funding in annual appropriations packages and have consistently voted to reauthorize this critical program, which they helped create in 1999. This legislation will ensure continued funding for the children’s hospitals in Ohio that rely on CHGME dollars to help support the training necessary to provide our children with the highest quality of care.

The CHGME program has provided children’s teaching hospitals with federal support for job training for physicians who care for children for decades. The program was first enacted by Congress in 1999 with bipartisan support, and has been reauthorized four times since then, each time with broad bipartisan support.

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