DOCTORS Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2650 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2650

    To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for the 
reallocation of unused waivers of the foreign residency requirement for 
                        certain J-visa holders.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 1, 2025

  Ms. Ernst (for herself and Ms. Klobuchar) introduced the following 
    bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for the 
reallocation of unused waivers of the foreign residency requirement for 
                        certain J-visa holders.

    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 ``Directing Our Country's Transfer of 
Residency Slots'' or the ``DOCTORS Act''.

SEC. 2. REALLOCATION OF UNUSED WAIVERS OF FOREIGN RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT 
              FOR CERTAIN J-VISA HOLDERS.

    Section 214(l) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1184(l)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(4)(A) Beginning on September 30, 2026, and every 
        September 30 thereafter, each State agency that received a 
        waiver under section 212(e) during the fiscal year that ends on 
        that date shall report to the Secretary of State the total 
        number of such waivers that the State agency did not use during 
        such fiscal year.
            ``(B)(i) For fiscal year 2026, and each fiscal year 
        thereafter, the Secretary of State shall--
                    ``(I) calculate the total number of unused waivers 
                reported by all State agencies under subparagraph (A); 
                and
                    ``(II) subject to clause (ii), reallocate such 
                waivers for equal distribution among eligible State 
                agencies for use during the subsequent fiscal year as 
                waivers subject to paragraph (1)(D)(ii) (referred to in 
                this paragraph as `supplemental waivers').
            ``(ii) The total number of supplemental waivers that may be 
        reallocated for use during a subsequent fiscal year shall be 
        the number that is \1/3\ of the difference between--
                    ``(I) the total number of waivers under section 
                212(e) available for the fiscal year; and
                    ``(II) the total number of waivers under section 
                212(e) distributed during such fiscal year.
            ``(C) In reallocating waivers under subparagraph (B), on 
        January 1, 2026, and every January 1 thereafter, the Secretary 
        of State shall inform each eligible State agency of--
                    ``(i) the number of supplemental waivers available 
                to the State agency for the subsequent fiscal year; and
                    ``(ii) the manner in which the supplemental waivers 
                will be distributed.
            ``(D) Ten percent of supplemental waivers distributed in a 
        fiscal year shall be used to support positions in 1 or more 
        facilities that serve patients who reside in medically 
        underserved communities (as defined in section 799B of the 
        Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 295p)).
            ``(E) In this paragraph, the term `eligible State agency' 
        means a State agency that, in the preceding fiscal year, used 
        not fewer than 30 waivers under section 212(e).''.
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