S. 426: Grow Our Own Directive: Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017

115th Congress · introduced 2017-02-16 · Armed Forces and National Security · Latest: Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 115-320.

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Where it came from: introduced 2017-02-16 · official record
Who proposed it: Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT] · what a sponsor is
What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
Where it stands now: Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 115-320. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.

What does this mean?

Official title

Grow Our Own Directive: Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017

Plain summary

Grow Our Own Directive: Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017 This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out a five-year Grow Our Own Directive (or G.O.O.D.) pilot program to provide educational assistance to certain former members of the Armed Forces for education and training as VA physician assistants in exchange for recipients agreeing to be employed as physician assistants for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for a specified period at a VA medical facility located in a community designated as a medically underserved population in a state with a per capita population of veterans of more than 9%. The VA shall: (1) provide at least 35 new scholarships under the pilot program each year, and (2) ensure that at least 25 new scholarships are awarded each year under its health professional and employee incentive scholarship programs for the education and training of physician assistants. The VA must: (1) establish specified standards to improve its use of educational assistance programs to educate and hire physician assistants, and (2) increase for each of the next five years the scholarship amounts provided under such programs. The bill establishes pay grades and competitive pay requirements for physician assistants. The VA must implement a national strategic plan for the retention and recruitment of VA physician assistants that includes competitive pay in comparison to the pay of physician assistants in the private sector.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Grow Our Own Directive: Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT] · 5 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH)

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Words on this page, explained (1)

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Sources

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)
Congress.gov
Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-115s426.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/115/s>

Record fed-us-cong115-s426 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong115 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong115