GPE Authorizing Update: March 2009

GPE Authorization: Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee will soon be introducing a bill, The Graduate Psychology Education Act of 2009, to formally authorize the GPE Program. Its statutory authority is based on a provision in the Public Health Service Act that allowed for funding training in mental health professions. The Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee, Frank Pallone (D-NJ) has agreed to accept that bill and we are working with APA members to find a member of that subcommittee to be an original sponsor in the House.

There is a provision to authorize the GPE Program as well as add psychology to the Bureau of Health Professions geriatric training programs in another bill – The Health Professions and Primary Care Reinvestment Act (Representative Diana DeGette, D-CO). This bill would amend Title VII of the Public Health Service Act to: (1) address workforce shortages for primary care health professions; (2) assist underrepresented minorities or disadvantaged students to enter health professions; (3) authorize the GPE Program; (4) expand geriatrics training initiatives to include graduate programs and professionals in behavioral and mental health; and (5) improve national health workforce analysis efforts.

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