Kelly Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Assist Military Medics Work in Civilian Medicine

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is introducing a bipartisan bill with Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), helping military medics transition to civilian medical fields after service.

Named the Medic Education and Deployment into Civilian (MEDIC) Careers Act of 2025, Sen. Kelly's legislation reduces red tape and bureaucratic barriers for medics to enter civilian medical professions by standardizing training to match civilian medical credential requirements.

Additionally, an existing Department of Defense program to support eligible civilian health care providers and service members in hiring, training, or retraining, and retention efforts while also leveraging G.I. benefits, will be updated.

According to Sen. Kelly, the United States is expected to have a shortage of 275,000 nurses by 2030. Simultaneously, despite 173,000 members of the Armed Forces working as healthcare personnel, the lack of a uniform credentialing system in the civilian workforce means many medics transitioning to civilian medicine are required to repeat previous training, which can delay certification or prevent them from obtaining it.

"The health care workforce is stretched thin while many highly trained military medics are underutilized once they leave service because of red tape," the Arizona Senator said in his press release, adding, "That's a missed opportunity. These men and women already have the training and experience to step into critical health care roles. We should be clearing a path so they can keep doing what they do best: saving lives."

At the end of May, Representative Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) introduced a similar bill, the Veterans Readiness and Employment Program Integrity Act, which strengthens the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) program by requiring the VA to report on the employment numbers and annual wages of VR&E participants, in addition to the average wait times they are subject to between their initial application and first meeting with a counselor, to combat multi-month wait times.