Rural maternity care that is truly sustainable will require substantial policy change – from restoring the historic cuts to Medicaid in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to training more providers across rural settings, to boosting reimbursement rates. I’m committed to advocating for that change on the federal level, and I welcome your continued partnership in that fight.
Advocate in Congress for federal policy changes to sustain rural maternity care, including restoring Medicaid cuts, training more rural providers, and boosting reimbursement rates.
Occurrences
Evidence
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Congress.gov lists Rep. Chellie Pingree as a cosponsor of H.R.1254 on 2025-12-16. The bill would create and expand HRSA grant programs to increase emergency obstetric capacity in rural areas, including grants for training, workforce development, equipment, and telehealth support. The bill status remains Introduced and referred to House Energy and Commerce.
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Pingree’s office said the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act without Democratic support, and Pingree criticized it as cutting more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and putting health care for millions at risk.
Assessments
Pingree took concrete federal action tied to the promise by cosponsoring the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act, which addressed rural obstetric capacity, provider training, equipment, workforce development, and telehealth support, and she publicly opposed Medicaid cuts affecting rural and reproductive health care. However, the core federal policy changes described in the promise were not fully delivered: the House bill remained short of enactment, Medicaid cuts were not restored through these actions, and the evidence does not show a successful boost to maternity reimbursement rates. This supports partial credit for advocacy and legislative effort, not full delivery of the promised policy outcome.