AWHONN regularly interacts with Members of Congress, their staff, and key agency officials. Below is a selection of written communications to these important partners.

March 7, 2025Expressing Support for The Improving Care and Access to Nurses (ICAN) Act

AWHONN urged members of the House and the Senate to support the Improving Care and Access to Nurses (ICAN) Act, which would increase patient access to care by removing outdated and unnecessary barriers.


Letter
March 27, 2025Nursing Workforce Development

Joining the Nursing Community Coalition, AWHONN signed onto a letter requesting at least $530 million for Title VIII Nursing Workfroce Development Programs and at least $210 million for the National Institute of Nursing Research, and for preserving NINR as an independent institute within the National Institute of Health in 2026. This support helps to ensure healthcare access by continuing to bolster nursing workforce development.
Letter
April 9, 2025Joint Statement from NACPM, ACNM, AWHONN on the Closing of the CDC's PRAMS Program

AWHONN opposed the forces leave of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) National Center for Disease Control (CDC) staff that oversees the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). PRAMS is widely recognized as the "gold standard" maternal mortality database and monitoring system. The forced leave would have profound consequences on birthing people and babies, likely increasing the maternal and newborn mortality rate in the U.S.
Statement
April 9, 2025Harmful Impacts of Medicaid Cuts

As part of the organization's commitment to improving outcomes and access to high-quality, equiatble services, AWHONN joined other notable organizations in contacting the House and Senate about the harmful effects of the Medicaid cuts and changes, such as exacerbated barriers to patient care, especially for pregnant and postpartum women, children, and families.
Letter
April 9, 2025Joint Statement from NACPM, ACNM, AWHONN on the Closing of the CDC's PRAMS Program

Statement
April 11, 2025Preserving Patients' Access to Nurses Through Medicaid

AWHONN joined the American Nurses Association and other organizations in urging Congress to protect Medicaid programming, access to nurses, and high-quality health care services.
Letter
April 18, 2025Funding for Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

AWHONN joined 82 organizations in the Friends of the HRSA urging House and Senate members to include at least $10.5 billion for discretionary Health Resources and Services Administration programs in the FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. This funding is essential to protecting the health of our communities, allowing HRSA to fill health care gaps and support the public health workforce.
February 13, 2024AWHONN joined 50 other members of the Nursing Community Coalition (NCC) in a letter thanking Senator Durbin and Congresswoman Bonamici for introducing the Nurse Faculty Shortage Reduction Act (S.2815/H.R.7002) and urge Congress to include said act in any health care or workforce package in order to pass this legislation by the end of the year. This legislation would provide much needed grant funding to close the pay gap between faculty and clinical nurses.
June 25, 2024AWHONN joined over 1,000 other organizations in a letter to House and Senate leadership asking Congress to reject cuts to non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding levels in Fiscal Year 2025. NDD funds are currently less than one-sixth of the federal budget, but they fund essential services from which every state and congressional district benefit. The letter urges Congress to invest the amounts needed to bolster economic strength and services critical to families and individuals.
December 11, 2024AWHONN joined a letter thanking members of the Senate for their efforts to promote telehealth, increasing access to healthcare, and urging them to extend telehealth flexibilities into 2025. Learn more.
11/9/2023As part of the Medicaid Family Planning Working Group, AWHONN requested a meeting with Daniel Tsai, the Director of Centers for Medicaid and CHIP Services to discuss the importance of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and the range of issues affecting Medicaid beneficiaries access to SRH services. These issues include but are not limited to: equalizing contraceptive coverage, protecting confidentiality and patient privacy, over the counter coverage and access, access to covered services and health care refusals, and enforcement of federal Medicaid law.
10/31/2023AWHONN signed onto the Nursing Community Coalition (NCC) letter to Rear Admiral Jennifer Moon welcoming her as the new Chief Nurse Officer at the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
10/10/2023 Improving Care and Access to Nurses (I CAN) Act
AWHONN joined the Nursing Community Coalition (NCC) and 60 other organizations in thanking Senate Nursing Caucus Co-Chair, Senator Jeff Merkley, and Senator Cynthia Lummis, for introducing the Improving Care and Access to Nurses (I CAN) Act (S.2418).
9/13/2023AWHONN endorses the CARE for Moms Act, as introduced by Representative Robin Kelly. The purpose of the Act is to improve Federal efforts to prevent maternal mortality, including but not limited to: funding for state-based perinatal quality collaboratives development and sustainability, Medicaid and CHIP expansion, funding to grow and diversify the full spectrum doula workforce, grants for rural obstetric mobile health units, requiring notification of impending hospital obstetric unit closure, reporting on maternal health needs, and increasing excise taxes of cigarettes and establishing tax equity among all tobacco product tax rates.
7/31/2023Urgent Concern - Sunsetting of Maternal Mortality Review Committee in Idaho
AWHONN joined the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in denouncing the decision of the Idaho State legislature to allow the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) to sunset. The denouncement urged the Idaho state legislature to reinstate the state MMRC and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to continue collecting maternal death data in the meantime.
7/18/2023AWHONN joined Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) in writing a letter to House and Senate leadership, pledging support for the Preventing Maternal Deaths Reauthorization Act of 2023 which continues federal aid for state-based maternal mortality review committees (MMRCs). MMRCs provide a crucial role in prevention of future maternal mortalities. The bill would advance AWHONN’s legislative priority to “support initiatives to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality and improve the health status of pregnant and birthing people, as well as policies designed to increase funding to address racial health disparities, structural and social determinants of health, and resolve health inequities contributing to these issues."
6/30/2023Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act
AWHONN endorsed the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Actwhich amends title V of the Social Security Act to support stillbirth prevention and research. This act is in line with AWHONN’s legislative priority to support initiatives to reduce infant mortality and improve the health status of newborns, critically ill infants, and preterm newborns, as well as policies designed to increase funding to address racial health disparities, structural and social determinants of health, and resolve health inequities contributing to these issues.
6/26/2023United States Breastfeeding Committee – Promoting Breastfeeding through CDC Funding
Synopsis: AWHONN joined the United States Breastfeeding Committee’s (USBC) petition to congress to direct $20M to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Hospitals Promoting Breastfeeding line item in the Fiscal Year 2024. This funding would enable the Division of Nutritional Physical Activity and Obesity (DNPAO) to implement the following:
1. Maintain and expand critical monitoring and surveillance activities
2. Utilize the CDC’s website to disseminate key breastfeeding information
3. Expand quality improvement investments for maternity care in hospitals
4. Expand funding for state, community, and tribal efforts to advance lactation support
5. Enhance and deepen partnerships with other federal agencies to develop infrastructure for infant feeding and lactation support
6/8/2023In accordance with the legislative priority to support initiatives to allow access to a wide range of evidence-based contraceptive options for women who seek them, AWHONN supported the proposed introduction of the Convenient Contraception Act. This bill would require health insurers to grant individuals access to a one year supply of contraceptives, rather than the three-month supply that is currently standard in many states.
3/29/2023 Regarding Coverage of Certain Preventative Services under the Affordable Care Act: RIN 1545-BQ35, RIN 1210-AC13, & RIN 0938-AU94
Synopsis: AWHONN joined 44 other organizations in responding to the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, and Department of the Treasury’s proposed rulemaking Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act, concurring with many of the Departments’ conclusions and proposing several recommendations for the final rule. Specifically, the signed organizations agreed with the Departments’ recission of the exemption of contraceptive care based in moral objection, comments on the Departments’ proposed Individual Contraceptive Agreement (ICA), and addresses the need for oversight and enforcement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contraceptive coverage requirement.
3/8/2023 Friends of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Appropriations Request
Synopsis: AWHONN signed on to a letter directed to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies to request no less than $500 million in funding for the Agency for Healthcare and Research and Quality (AHRQ) for fiscal year 2024. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) supports research to improve health care quality, reduce costs, advance patient safety, decrease medical errors, and broaden access to essential services.