Review - HR 612 Introduced – Healthcare Security

Back in January, Rep Escobar (D,TX) introduced HR 612, the Health Care Providers Safety Act of 2025. The bill would amend the Public Health Service Act by adding a new §399V-8, Grants to Health Care Providers to Enhance Security. It would allow HHS to “award grants to health care providers to pay for security services and otherwise enhance the physical and cyber security of their facilities, personnel, and patients to ensure safe access.” No funding is authorized for this proposed program.

This bill is essentially identical to HR 286 which Escobar introduced in January 2023. No action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress.

Moving Forward

While Escobar is not a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, at least one of his 66 cosponsors, Rep Paul Tonko, (D,NY), is a member of the Committee. This means that there could be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. Having said that, this pro-abortion bill has little chance of being considered by the Committee in a Republican controlled House, and no chance of being recommended favorably if it were.

Commentary

Just reading the provisions of the bill, one would be hard pressed to see this as a legislative effort to aid abortion clinics. After reading Escobar’s press release, it is easy to see how this bill was crafted to do exactly that. That is unfortunate (ignoring the abortion issue) as grants to medical clinics and hospitals for security issues, particularly cybersecurity issues, would be a worthwhile proposition. This bill will not get a chance to affect that problem.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-612-introduced - subscription required.