Congressional Bills Aim to Fix Drug and Healthcare Provider Shortages in 2026

As of January 2026, more than 287 drugs are still in short supply across the U.S., with nearly half of them being life-saving medications like insulin, chemotherapy agents, and antibiotics. Hospitals are rationing doses. Pharmacies are telling patients to wait weeks. And doctors are forced to use less effective alternatives-sometimes with dangerous results. This isn’t a temporary glitch. It’s a system failure. And Congress is finally trying to fix it.

The Two Bills Trying to Stop the Crisis

Two bills introduced in the 119th Congress are the most direct attempts to tackle this problem. The first is the Drug Shortage Prevention Act of 2025 (S.2665). Introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar in August 2025, it would require drug manufacturers to notify the FDA the moment they see a spike in demand for critical medicines. Right now, companies aren’t legally required to say anything until it’s too late-often after supplies have already run out. This bill wants to change that by forcing early warnings, giving regulators time to step in, find alternate suppliers, or adjust distribution.

The second bill, Health Care Provider Shortage Minimization Act of 2025 (H.R.1160), takes a different angle. It doesn’t focus on pills or injections. It focuses on people. The U.S. is facing a looming collapse in frontline healthcare workers. Over 122 million Americans live in areas where there aren’t enough primary care doctors, nurses, or dentists. The American Association of Medical Colleges predicts a shortage of 124,000 physicians by 2034. H.R.1160 is meant to address that, but here’s the problem: no one knows exactly how. The bill’s full text hasn’t been made public. There are no details on funding, no list of programs it would support, no mention of loan forgiveness, residency expansion, or telehealth incentives. It’s a placeholder with a powerful name-and that’s not enough.

Why These Bills Are Stuck

The biggest reason these bills aren’t moving? The longest government shutdown in U.S. history. It started on October 1, 2025, and as of January 2026, it’s still going. Over 800,000 federal workers are furloughed-including the FDA staff who track drug shortages, the HRSA employees who map provider gaps, and the budget analysts who would normally review bills like S.2665 and H.R.1160.

The FDA’s Drug Shortage Portal, the main tool hospitals use to check what’s running low, has been down for weeks. Updates aren’t being posted. Alerts aren’t being sent. So even if manufacturers start reporting demand increases under S.2665, there’s no one left to receive the messages.

Meanwhile, Congress is busy with other fights. In November 2025, House Republicans pushed to reverse a rule that lets senators sue over phone records. A proposed continuing resolution to keep the government open through January 30, 2026, made no mention of drug shortages or healthcare staffing. No funding. No policy changes. Just a stopgap with no solutions.

What’s Really Causing the Shortages?

The problem isn’t just bad timing or political gridlock. It’s structural. The Association for Accessible Medicines found that 63% of drug shortages come from manufacturing delays-often because a single factory in India or China makes most of a generic drug, and when that plant shuts down for inspection or supply issues, the whole country feels it. The FDA has limited power to force diversification. Companies don’t see profit in building backup capacity for low-margin generics.

And then there’s the workforce side. Medical schools aren’t graduating enough doctors fast enough. Rural clinics can’t compete with urban hospitals on salary. Nurses are quitting after years of burnout. The American Hospital Association reported in October 2025 that 98% of hospitals faced at least one critical drug shortage in the third quarter alone. And 87% of physicians say those shortages directly hurt patient care. Yet only 12% even knew H.R.1160 existed.

The Cost of Doing Nothing

If nothing changes, the damage will keep piling up. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that implementing S.2665 would cost about $45 million a year-just to staff the FDA’s shortage monitoring team. That’s less than 0.003% of the $1.74 trillion federal deficit from 2024-2025. But in a shutdown environment where lawmakers are cutting $1.1 billion from public media and $7.9 billion from foreign aid, even small investments seem impossible.

The economic toll is worse. The CBO estimates the shutdown alone is costing the economy $1.5 billion a day. Add to that the hidden costs of delayed surgeries, ER visits for preventable complications, and patients skipping treatments because their meds aren’t available. Those costs don’t show up in budget reports-but they show up in hospital bills, lost wages, and premature deaths.

What Could Actually Work?

S.2665 has potential-if it’s done right. But right now, it’s vague. What counts as a “critical drug”? Who pays for the reporting system? What happens if a company lies or delays? Without penalties, this becomes another paperwork requirement with no teeth. Experts say the bill needs three things: clear definitions, mandatory reporting timelines, and fines for noncompliance.

H.R.1160 needs more than a name. It needs a plan. The U.S. has successfully reduced provider shortages before-through loan forgiveness for doctors who work in rural areas, expanding nurse practitioner scope of practice, and funding residency slots in underserved regions. If H.R.1160 included even one of those ideas, it would be a real step forward. As it stands, it’s a slogan without a strategy.

What Patients and Providers Can Do Now

Waiting for Congress isn’t an option. Here’s what you can do:

• If you rely on a medication that’s been in short supply, talk to your pharmacist about alternatives. Many generics have interchangeable versions.
• Join patient advocacy groups like the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists or the National Patient Advocate Foundation. They’re tracking shortages and pushing for change.
• Call your representatives. Ask them: “What are you doing about S.2665 and H.R.1160?” If they don’t know, they’re not paying attention.
• Report shortages directly to the FDA’s Drug Shortage Portal-even if it’s slow. Your report might be one of the few still being collected.

There’s no magic fix. But if Congress does nothing, the shortages will keep getting worse. And next time, it won’t just be insulin or antibiotics. It could be the drug that saves your child, your parent, or you.

What Happens Next?

The continuing resolution that keeps the government running expires on January 30, 2026. If Congress doesn’t pass a new funding bill by then, the shutdown will deepen-and with it, the drug and provider shortages. If they do pass a bill, but leave out S.2665 and H.R.1160, those bills will die when the 119th Congress ends in January 2027.

There’s no guarantee these bills will become law. But if they do, they could be the first real steps toward fixing a broken system. Right now, they’re just pieces of paper sitting in a government that’s barely functioning. The question isn’t whether we need action. It’s whether we’ll get it before another life is lost because the system failed.