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S 4357
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Hazard Pay for Health Care Heroes Act

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for emergency grants to safeguard essential health care workers, and for other purposes.

Introduced Apr 21, 2026

Latest action (Apr 21, 2026) Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Referred to
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
Policy area
Health
Issues
Healthcare

Summary
  • Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to healthcare facilities and home health agencies to provide hazard pay to essential health care workers during emergencies or disasters
  • Defines eligible health care workers as essential healthcare workers whose work cannot be conducted remotely, including healthcare providers, direct care workers, medical technologists, public health workers, orderlies, and environmental or janitorial workers in healthcare settings
  • Limits hazard duty compensation to a maximum of $13 per hour with a yearly cap of $25,000 per worker, provided in addition to regular wages, when work or commute is determined to be hazardous
  • Allows grant recipients to use funds for safety measures to protect workers from emergency-related hazards, including alternative transit options, personal protective equipment, and other protective measures
  • Applies to major disasters, emergencies, national emergencies, public health emergencies, and state, local, territorial, or tribal emergency declarations
  • Authorizes appropriations as necessary to carry out the grant program

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
1 cosponsor

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Edward J. Markey’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

  • WILMERHALE $29,800
  • STANFORD UNIVERSITY $13,200
  • THE WONDERFUL COMPANY $13,200
  • BAD ROBOT $13,200
  • GOOGLE $12,850

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Edward J. Markey → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)
  1. Apr 21, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. · senate
  2. Apr 21, 2026 Introduced in Senate

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 8484 — Hazard Pay for Health Care Heroes Act · Introduced Apr 23, 2026 · Cong. 119 92%
  • HR 8368 — To appropriate funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund, and for other purposes. · Introduced Apr 20, 2026 · Cong. 119 67%
  • HR 6601 — CARE for First Responders Act · Introduced Feb 2, 2026 · Cong. 119 63%
  • HR 7486 — Protecting Hospitals from Disaster Act of 2026 · Introduced Feb 11, 2026 · Cong. 119 62%
  • HR 7829 — Disaster Aid Without Delay Act of 2026 · Introduced Mar 6, 2026 · Cong. 119 62%
  • HR 10002 — Guaranteed Disaster Assistance Act · Introduced Jul 30, 2026 · Cong. 119 60%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in Senate · Apr 21, 2026

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

April 21, 2026

Mr. Markey introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for emergency grants to safeguard essential health care workers, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Hazard Pay for Health Care Heroes Act”.

SEC. 2. SAFEGUARDING ESSENTIAL HEALTH CARE WORKERS.

The Public Health Service Act is amended by inserting after section 319D-1 (42 U.S.C. 247d-4b) the following:

“SEC. 319D-2. EMERGENCY GRANTS TO SAFEGUARD ESSENTIAL HEALTH CARE WORKERS.

“(a) Definitions.—In this section:

“(1) Emergency or disaster.—The term ‘emergency or disaster’ means—

“(A) a major disaster declared by the President under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act;

“(B) an emergency declared by the President under section 501 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act;

“(C) a national emergency declared by the President under the National Emergencies Act;

“(D) a public health emergency declared under section 319; and

“(E) a State, local, territorial, or Tribal emergency or disaster, as declared by the applicable State, local, territorial, or Tribal government.

“(2) Eligible health care worker.—The term ‘eligible health care worker’ means an essential health care worker whose work cannot be conducted remotely.

“(3) Essential health care worker.—The term ‘essential health care worker’ means—

“(A) a health care provider, including a direct care worker (as defined in section 799B);

“(B) a medical technologist;

“(C) a public health worker;

“(D) an orderly (as defined in the 2010 Standard Occupational Classifications of the Department of Labor under the code for Orderlies (31-1015));

“(E) an environmental service, janitorial, or custodial worker in a health care setting; and

“(F) any other professional role that the Secretary determines is essential to the care of patients or the maintenance of public health.

“(b) Grants.—

“(1) In general.—The Secretary may make grants to public or private nonprofit health care facilities and home health agencies for use in accordance with paragraph (2).

“(2) Use of funds.—

“(A) Hazardous duty compensation.—

“(i) In general.—The recipient of a grant under paragraph (1) shall use the grant funds to provide hazardous duty compensation to eligible health care workers for work performed during the period of an emergency or disaster in cases in which the Secretary determines that—

“(I) the performance of the work by the eligible health care worker for the applicable health care facility or home health agency is hazardous; or

“(II) the commute of the eligible health care worker is hazardous.

“(ii) Requirement.—

“(I) In general.—Subject to subclause (II), the amount of hazardous duty compensation under clause (i) shall be not more than $13 per hour, which shall be in addition to the wages or remuneration the eligible health care worker otherwise receives for the work.

“(II) Maximum amount.—The total amount of hazardous duty compensation received by any 1 eligible health care worker under this subparagraph may not exceed $25,000 per year.

“(B) Additional uses.—The recipient of a grant under paragraph (1) may use the grant funds to provide safety measures to safeguard and protect eligible health care workers from hazards due to the applicable emergency or disaster, including alternative transit options, personal protective equipment, and other safety measures.

“(c) Authorization of Appropriations.—There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section such sums as may be necessary.”. <all>

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