H.R. 10209: Granting Resources for Eliminating Emissions Now in Hospitals Act

This bill would create and expand federal grants to help hospitals and other medical facilities become more resilient, energy-efficient, and climate-ready.

What the bill changes

• It would amend an existing federal hospital construction and modernization grant program to give priority to projects designed to withstand natural disasters, climate change, and public health emergencies.
• It would add a new federal grant program called the Planning and Evaluation Grant Program to help eligible entities develop long-term plans for making medical facilities and nearby infrastructure more sustainable and resilient.
• It would authorize large amounts of federal funding for these efforts:
  • $100 billion for the expanded hospital infrastructure grant program in fiscal year 2026.
  • $5 billion for the new planning and evaluation grant program in fiscal year 2026.

What kinds of projects could be funded

The bill focuses on upgrades that help medical facilities keep operating during extreme weather, power outages, and other disruptions. Examples include:

• On-site power systems using energy-efficient equipment, battery storage, and renewable energy.
• Heating, cooling, air filtration, air purification, and air quality monitoring systems.
• Green infrastructure such as wetlands, drainage ponds, green roofs, green walls, indoor plantings, and tree planting.
• Flood, wildfire, and other disaster protections for roads, sidewalks, and transit routes that people use to reach medical facilities.
• Other upgrades the Health and Human Services Secretary determines would improve sustainability, resilience, patient health, or community access.

Who could apply

For the planning grants, eligible applicants would include states, tribal governments, local governments, hospital district authorities, public or quasi-public entities, and nonprofit private entities.

How applications would be reviewed

Applicants would have to describe the project, the patients and communities served, how the project would improve resilience and sustainability, and whether the community is an environmental justice community. The Secretary of Health and Human Services would be allowed to set additional requirements and develop evaluation criteria, working with other federal agencies if needed.

The bill says priority should go to projects that serve:

• Facilities heavily dependent on Medicare and Medicaid patients, or with many uninsured patients.
• Communities with poor air quality, little green space, high pollution burdens, or high climate risk.

Planning activities and technical assistance

The planning grants could pay for project planning, community outreach, feasibility studies, needs assessments, engineering and climate-risk reviews, and other related work. The bill also directs the federal government to provide technical assistance, especially for projects serving environmental justice or medically underserved communities.

Labor-related conditions

To receive a grant or technical assistance, an eligible entity would need to certify several labor-related conditions, including:

• Payment of prevailing wages to many workers on covered projects.
• Adequate staffing to meet community service obligations.
• Either a collective bargaining agreement at the facility or a policy not to interfere with employees’ rights under federal labor law.
• A ban on certain “training repayment” or “debt repayment” provisions that would make workers or trainees pay money back if employment or training ends early.

Environmental justice requirement

The bill would require that at least 50% of grant funds be used for projects located in environmental justice communities.

Relevant Companies

• None found