April 2025 marked a significant milestone in nursing advocacy as more than 50 meetings took place between nurses and congressional offices across party lines. Representing communities from Arizona to Maine, nurses came forward not only as clinicians but also as policy advocates, educators, researchers, and caregivers working at the intersection of health and environmental justice.
Over the course of three days, ANHE and nurse partners met with 47 House and Senate offices. These included champions like Senators Kaine, Peters, and Padilla, as well as offices less familiar with nursing’s leadership in public and environmental health. These were not passive listening sessions. Staffers asked targeted questions, shared their legislative timelines, and, in several cases, expressed a desire to continue the dialogue. Many requested additional data, nurse stories, and follow-up briefings.
Core Advocacy Themes Raised in Meetings
Across visits, nurses emphasized six key asks, including protecting the Clean Air Act, opposing changes to the EPA’s endangerment finding, and defending funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Three dominant themes consistently emerged:
- The Human Cost of Deregulation: Nurses shared firsthand stories of children hospitalized for asthma, patients in rural areas waiting days in ER bays, and elders struggling to breathe due to wildfire smoke. A staffer from Rep. Pelosi’s office said it plainly: “Data matters, but people respond to stories.” This sentiment was echoed in several offices. Nurses’ lived experiences are essential tools for shaping policy.
- Nurses as Trusted Messengers in Every District: Nurses grounded policy conversations in the reality of their patients’ lives. Many of those patients live paycheck to paycheck, drink from contaminated wells, or care for children with preventable respiratory illnesses. Several staffersrequested further outreach to collect more local stories and examples of community-level impact.
- Protecting Health Infrastructure Is Climate Policy: Whether discussing electric school buses, HVAC upgrades, or Medicaid cuts, nurses consistently reframed infrastructure investments as vital for population health. From Delaware to Oregon, nurses illustrated how IIJA and IRA funding helps prevent illness, stabilize healthcare systems, and reduce long-term hospital burden.
Notable Interactions
- A nurse in California described using EPA air quality data multiple times a day to decide whether students could safely play outside. This example, shared with Sen. Kelly’s office, highlighted the direct use of federal tools in school health decisions.
- In a meeting with Rep. Mackenzie’s office, a nurse detailed rising asthma rates among her patients and how hybrid car incentives through IRA programs support community health.
- Rep. Pressley’s team expressed enthusiasm about linking environmental health and maternal health, an intersection where nurses hold both scientific data and moral clarity.
- Sen. Fetterman’s staff spoke candidly about the importance of stories that demonstrate the human side of deregulation. They also welcomed follow-up on issues like orphan wells and the health impacts of flooding.
What’s Next?
Follow-up conversations with legislative staff are already underway. Nurses left the Hill energized by the momentum, not because the challenges have eased, but because it is clear that nurses belong in every space where policy is made.
One staffer captured the moment well after hearing about school children affected by pollution and families displaced by extreme weather: “This isn’t abstract. This is happening now. Please keep sending us stories like this. We need them to do our jobs.”
Author: Ashley Smith, MSN, RN, PHN, CNE, DNP-Population Health student, UW-Madison, practicum student with the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
