LeadingAge and AHCA/NCAL, met with staff from the DOL to strongly urge that DOL consider changes to the “Schedule A” petitions, which could improve the process of allowing registered nurses to permanently enter the country. The meeting also provided an opportunity to highlight our support for increasing federal funds for the National Apprenticeship program.

On June 13, 2022, LeadingAge policy staff and representatives from AHCA/NCAL met with staff from the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs (OCIA) to urge DOL to expedite processing of “Schedule A” petitions, which could improve the process of allowing registered nurses to permanently enter the country. LeadingAge members Paul Spence, United Methodist Healthcare Recruitment, and Tina Sandri, Forrest Hills of DC, also participated in the meeting.

Professional nurses and physical therapists qualify as Schedule A occupations. An advantage of being on Schedule A petition, is that the foreign worker can obtain a green card without first having to go through the entire labor certification process.

LeadingAge requested the meeting following DOL’s response to our April 1, 2022, coalition letter seeking these changes. The May 3, 2022 response letter from Brian Pasternak, DOL’s Administrator for the ETA’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification, stated the DOL cannot implement the coalition’s request to expedite processing of Schedule A petitions by creating a new category for Schedule A petitions for requests from long-term care providers. The coalition also asked to “create a separate category for ‘Schedule A’ instead of lumping Schedule A cases” with those from the permanent labor certification program (or PERM) in DOL’s processing queue.

Paul Spence, United Methodist Healthcare Recruitment, who actively works with international recruitment agencies, validated the importance of the requested streamlined process of issuing prevailing wage determinations for Schedule A petitions, and the benefit it would have if registered nurses and physical therapists could bypass the labor certification process.

DOL was asked whether specific regulatory action could be used to address these issues. Ultimately, DOL agreed that a regulatory process could be put in place, but did not commit to making any changes. DOL also shared how much they appreciated the opportunity to hear about these issues in greater detail, and highlighted the Office of Foreign Labor Certification is investing additional staff to address the increase in demand for prevailing wage determinations.

Additionally, the meeting provided an opportunity to highlight support for increasing federal funds for the national apprenticeship program that could allow aging services providers to immediately fill vacant positions. To help address the critically worse staffing shortage, Tina Sandri, Forrest Hills of DC, made a request for increased funding for apprenticeship programs.

In June 2021 LeadingAge sent a letter to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which provides recommendations to revise the House-passed National Apprenticeship Act of 2021 (H.R. 447), a bill that would reauthorize the national apprenticeship program. LeadingAge asked the committee to direct DOL to allow aging service organizations to participate in the national registered apprenticeship system and expand opportunities to create a pipeline of LTSS occupations.