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

By January 2026, over 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 prescribe less effective alternatives-sometimes with dangerous side effects. Despite this crisis, the federal government has been mostly silent. Until now.

Two Bills, One Goal: Stopping Shortages Before They Start

In August 2025, Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced the Drug Shortage Prevention Act of 2025 (S.2665). It’s not a flashy name, but it’s one of the most direct attempts to fix drug shortages in years. The bill doesn’t promise new funding or create new agencies. Instead, it requires drug manufacturers to notify the FDA the moment they see a spike in demand for critical medicines. Think of it like a smoke alarm for the medicine supply chain.

Right now, manufacturers aren’t legally required to report when they’re running low-or when they expect to run low. That means the FDA often finds out about a shortage after hospitals are already out of stock. S.2665 changes that. If passed, companies would have to flag rising demand, production delays, or raw material shortages within 10 days. The goal? Give the FDA time to step in-find alternate suppliers, fast-track approvals, or warn providers before patients are left without treatment.

Meanwhile, in the House, Representative [unnamed] introduced H.R.1160, the Health Care Provider Shortage Minimization Act of 2025. While details are scarce, the title alone tells you what it’s aiming for: fixing the shortage of doctors, nurses, and other frontline workers. The U.S. is projected to fall short by 124,000 physicians by 2034. Right now, 122 million Americans live in areas with too few primary care providers. Rural clinics shut down. Emergency rooms stretch staff to the breaking point. H.R.1160 is supposed to address this, but without a public summary, no one knows if it offers loan forgiveness, expands training programs, or creates new visa pathways for foreign-trained clinicians.

Why These Bills Are Stuck

Here’s the harsh truth: neither bill has moved past committee. And that’s not because lawmakers don’t care-it’s because the federal government has been shut down since October 1, 2025. The longest shutdown in U.S. history. Over 800,000 federal workers are furloughed. The FDA, the very agency S.2665 depends on to monitor and respond to shortages, has no staff to process notifications. Their Drug Shortage Portal is down. Their email system is offline. Their ability to track anything? Gone.

The shutdown isn’t just a delay-it’s a full stop. No hearings. No votes. No amendments. Even the continuing resolution passed by Senate Republicans in November 2025, which extends funding through January 30, 2026, doesn’t mention drug shortages or healthcare staffing. It’s focused on cutting foreign aid and media budgets. Not on saving lives.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that implementing S.2665 would cost $45 million a year. That’s less than 0.003% of the $1.74 trillion deficit from last year. But in today’s political climate, even small costs are seen as too high. The Rescissions Act of 2025 slashed $9 billion from State Department and USAID funding-yet nothing for the FDA to prevent people from dying because their cancer drug is out of stock.

Who’s Feeling the Pain?

You don’t need to read bills to understand the impact. Ask a hospital pharmacist. Or a cancer patient. Or a parent whose child needs an antibiotic that’s been unavailable for six months.

A September 2025 survey by the American Medical Association found that 87% of physicians have seen patients suffer because of drug shortages. The American Hospital Association reported that 98% of hospitals faced at least one critical drug shortage in the third quarter of 2025. Generic drugs-cheaper, widely used medications-account for 63% of these shortages, according to the Association for Accessible Medicines. That’s not a glitch. It’s a broken system. Manufacturers can’t make enough because they’re not paid enough. And without profit, they stop producing.

The provider shortage is just as bad. Rural clinics have closed. Nurses are working 12-hour shifts six days a week. Emergency rooms turn away patients because there’s no one to staff them. And H.R.1160? No one knows what it actually says. Only 12% of doctors even knew it existed.

What’s Missing From the Debate

There’s a bigger problem no one’s talking about: transparency. The FDA publishes a list of drug shortages, but it’s outdated. It doesn’t show when a shortage will end. It doesn’t say why it happened. It doesn’t tell you if there’s a replacement available. And it’s not even reliable during the shutdown.

S.2665 could fix that-if it had teeth. Right now, there’s no penalty for manufacturers who fail to report. No fines. No audits. No public accountability. If a company hides a shortage to avoid panic or protect profits, there’s nothing stopping them. That’s why experts say the bill needs a compliance framework. Not just a notification system. A system with consequences.

And what about the supply chain? Most shortages aren’t caused by lack of demand. They’re caused by manufacturing problems-single-source suppliers, quality control failures, or raw material shortages. S.2665 doesn’t address that. It only asks companies to say when they’re in trouble. It doesn’t help them avoid it.

What Comes Next?

If the shutdown ends before January 30, 2026, S.2665 and H.R.1160 might get a hearing. But if it drags on-and there’s no sign it won’t-both bills will die when the 119th Congress ends in January 2027. That means no new laws. No new protections. No new oversight.

That’s not a policy failure. It’s a public health disaster.

What can you do? Call your representative. Ask them: Do you support S.2665? Do you know what H.R.1160 actually does? Demand answers. Share stories. Pressure your local hospital to speak up. The system won’t fix itself. It never has.

The next time you hear about a drug shortage, don’t assume it’s just bad luck. It’s the result of decisions-or lack of them. And Congress is running out of time to change that.